A Dragon Without Wings
by MasterMartin
Summary: Of what use is a Dragon Without Wings? That is a question Lilac has been asking herself ever since the accident. From a trio's attempt to steer her life onto a better path, lays a dragon girl crippled - paralysed from the waist down. Her spirit shattered, now she wheels herself around a world that refuses to understand, to find a new path - before sadness overtakes her completely.
1. Chapter 1: Disaster Averted

**/**Hey so, uh, before we start the story, gonna throw up a warning of sorts. The story is gonna handle depression a lot, and attempted suicide in two or so chapters - this being the first. Now I know DA is a place for those more hardened to mature topics, infamous for such in fact. But if you don't handle suicide scenes well, I suggest you skip the prologue and start from Chapter 1, when it's out. Okay? Okay. Hope you enjoy the fic. */**

Numbness. A cold, empty, hollow numbness. That was all Lilac felt. Well, from the waist down at least.

It was all she could concentrate on, sitting in her wheelchair and staring blankly into the Valley's golden sands. The amber rays were casting down on her, raining down with their false hope and their whimsical promises of freedom and adventure ever just beyond the horizon. Her finger tapped against the arm rests of her wheelchair in a vaguely subconscious manner as she continued to stare into the valley from atop the cliff she was on, watching the tumbleweeds and the animals of the valley play in the caverns below. Lilac's eyes were drenched with tears, knowing that, far from the days she would playfully chase them around the rocky spaces below, she might never be able to join them in their fun ever again.

A sob jammed her throat up as she continued to think about it. Her upper body was still fine, the bits that kept her body alive were okay; blood pumping, heart racing, lungs contracting and stomach processing what little food she allowed herself to have. But everything below her waist, her legs specifically, just felt so empty and dead and just so depressingly NUMB. There was no feeling, not even a small twitch within them to remind her of her former life. They just sort of existed now, attached to her body and weighing her down. Even her world famous tendrils had just sort of stopped working; both hung loosely on the back of her head. And even now, all but a week on from the event that caused all of this misery, she still felt sick. She still felt wrong. And she wasn't sure if that feeling would ever go away. Not unless she did something about it...

"Urgh, that was a mistake..." came a voice behind her, "Probably should have left the paprika out of that last batch. Although...I think with a little soy sauce they should be fantastic!"

Lilac was confused. Who was this being? What on earth was he blathering about? Was he talking about sushi? Why the heck had he put paprika in sushi?! She turned her wheelchair around to see who was behind her; it was indeed a male, a very strange one at that, who had managed to sneak up behind her in an unnaturally silent manner. He was...well, it wasn't clear what he was at first glance. He was clearly similar to the sort of person that inhabited Planet Avalice, but there were just enough differences to show that he was not of this world; his body was lankier, a bit taller than Lilac if she could stand, while his eyes were much wider and seemed to be a case of one "eye" and two grey pupils within it, alongside a clearly defined muzzle with jagged scraps of fur around the edges. He seemed to be a wolf at best guess, with grey fur and a bushy tail, while he wore what seemed to be a damaged dinner suit that was black in colour and came with a red bowtie and cufflinks. The rest of his attire was no stranger, wearing leather driving gloves, one leather shoe and one sneaker, while a blue necktie was wrapped around his head and what seemed to be a wand of sorts lodged into his lapel.

He looked up at Lilac, taking his attention off of the plate of sushi in his hand, and nodded to Lilac like he was trying to tip a hat he didn't have, "Well, uh, hello! Lilac, is it?"

Lilac looked at this strange man with a look of half-confusion, half-fear, "...Who are you? What're you doing here? Did Carol send you?"

"Well...I guess it would be a bit proper to introduce myself," the odd man straightened up and smiled, "Hello! I'm The Surgeon! Time Lord, traveller of the universe and collaborator with the No-Zone."

"Oh not those people again..." Lilac sighed.

"Well, I do what I can to keep these worlds safe," The Surgeon shrugged, "And knowing what you've been through, it'd be better to out-and-out state what I'm here for rather than try to come up with something you're not gonna believe. I am here, miss Lilac, to stop a suicide."

"O-Oh?" Lilac asked, shaking a bit, "Who might do that?"

The Surgeon looked at Lilac's shivering, crying form and sighed, "Lilac, I'm a time traveller. I know what happens in this timeline. And it isn't what you're about to do. It's not right, Lilac. This isn't the way to solve this problem. It's a massive, fantastic, a brilliant BRILLIANT life...that you're just going to throw off a cliff. It's...well, it's insane!"

"...How would you know?" Lilac crowed bitterly, her voice breaking at the very end, "What sort of life is this? I used to be the fastest dragon girl on the planet. Able to Dragon Boost from one side of the world to the other! The one to save it all from the evil Lord Brevon! Now look at me. I can't even feel my legs anymore, let alone use 'em. I...I wanna fly high..." she sobbed, turning around again and looking at the sky, "But I'll never leave the ground again..."

"But that's not all that's left," The Surgeon pleaded, "This isn't the end the party, this isn't the end of Sash Lilac, and it isn't worth throwing your very life away. Please, Lilly. Think of the people you'll leave behind, devastated at the loss."

"They won't miss me!" Lilac cried out, her voice wavering even more now, "They'll find another girl to make friends with! Forget I ever existed! They've got no use for me anymore...I'm just a shell of a former self that no-one even liked to begin with.

"Listen to yourself, Lilac!" The Surgeon said, his tone becoming much more serious, "Listen to what you're saying. It's crazy talk. It flies in the face of everything that happens on this very scrap of Terra Firma, hurtling its way through space. And it's not you, Lilac. This is the grief within you talking. And it wants to end you!"

"How so?!" Lilac squeaked, her voice becoming louder and more desperate by the second, "I mean, Carol abandoned me, didn't she? Left me to die at Brevon's hand. And when I came back, like this? Where was she, huh? Where was she when I needed her the most?!"

"Please..."

"Stop it!" Lilac shrieked, grasping the wheels of her wheelchair and budging herself slightly forward, "I'LL DO IT!"

"No you won't," The Surgeon stood his ground, his voice unwavering and entrenched in the realm of stoic, "I know you won't."

"I WILL!" Lilac screamed, "I'LL WHEEL MYSELF RIGHT OFF THIS CLIFF!"

"Not with the brakes on, you won't."

Lilac stopped. She stared at the ravine below. She tried to move the wheels forward. They wouldn't budge...the brakes were on. Finally, whatever was left of her resolve broke down, her hands slipping off the wheels as she began to weep into them. He was right; this wasn't the right way to do it. This wouldn't stop the pain, merely shove it onto those who were less deserving. Her weeping and sniffling turned into full-on sobbing again in short order, unaware of The Surgeon slowly approaching her wheelchair, disengaging the brakes and quickly moving far away from the edge of the cliff edge. She only whispered broken words in between sobs, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

"I know you are..." The Surgeon sighed as he continued to push Lilac down the path she had taken to get up there. He didn't stop until he was about halfway down the cliff itself, stopping in the middle of one of Dragon Valley's many springs, and sat on a rock by the side as Lilac continued to pitifully sob near the water's edge. He breathed a hasty but long-drawn sigh of relief as Lilac soon slowed down on the crying, seemingly soothed by the water's calming rumble. Finally, when it looked like she had calmed down enough, he got up from the rock and slowly approached her, slowly extending his arm towards her with a bit of his sushi in hand. Lilac looked at him in a puzzled manner.

The Surgeon shrugged, "You can have it. Don't worry, I dusted all the paprika off this one. I...kinda had time to kill, after all."

"This isn't fair..." Lilac wept, "Your boys in red told me about what's out there. A million different versions of me across all of time and space, and it's ME in particular who loses her legs..." she turned to look at The Surgeon, tears still in her heavily-bloodshot eyes, "Wh-why?"

"That's just the way it goes, I'm afraid," The Surgeon shrugged, "One of the problems with the multiverse. Not every version of you can have a happy ending. I...know it's not exactly the great motivator. You can feel so small when you have the knowledge that one version of you just jumped off the...uh, sorry. This isn't helping, is it?"

"Does it look like it's helping?!" Lilac whimpered. She took a hasty bite of the sushi in an attempt to calm herself. It tasted...odd, to say the least.

"Yeah, first time trying to make it. Don't think it worked out that well. Probably should have left the garlic ketchup out too..." The Surgeon sighed, his ears drooping, "I'm sorry, Lilac. I know this isn't helping much, but...well I guess when you're a multiple-life alien you can't exactly find the right sort of empathy for those with one life and no ability to heal anything."

"It's okay..." Lilac sighed, watching the waters ripple and splash in front of her, "You stopped me from...throwing myself off a cliff. I think that's more than enough empathy. A lot more than most other people on this wretched planet. I don't know what I would have done if you didn't...well, TRY to talk me out of it. I might have disengaged the brakes..."

"Yes, and we don't want that, do we?" The Surgeon said, "Not when there's still hope, heh heh...hmm, I tell you what. The others are still waiting for you back home, but I don't think you're quite ready to return just yet. So we have time to kill and I'm sort of curious, so tell me...if you want to..."

Lilac turned to look directly at The Surgeon again, his face plastered with a look of impending regret. A horrible heavy feeling welled up in her stomach, she already knew what he was going to ask, but it was something that needed to be answered nevertheless. Maybe if she went through it all again, she might find acceptance for what she now was. She blinked at him, "Yes?"

"How DID you end up in a wheelchair?"

Lilac remained calm for a second, silent, staring out into the dense jungle surrounding the two. Even when she could feel the question coming it still stung when it was asked. She grabbed her wheelchair and tried her best to shimmy her way around so that the whole wheelchair was facing The Surgeon, finishing her sushi and resting her hands on her knees. She drew in and breathed out a long sigh, before she cleared her throat and began.

"Well, it all started a week or so ago. About halfway into this little adventure of mine if your No-Zone boys meant what they were saying. We had just escaped Neera and lost Torque to Brevon's forces. Then we had that big fight between me and Carol. But...then they arrived. Those who started all those changes to my timeline. Let me see if I can remember..."


	2. Chapter 2: A Better Tomorrow

Jade Creek. A full week ago, in the middle of the night. I was cold, wet and very, very tired. My legs felt like they were burning up with all the work I had put them through those few hours before. It was dark outside, having spent all night outrunning that majestic prick, Neera. We ran from her ice floes, from her battleship, from Neera herself. We were actually kinda lucky that her henchman was so hopelessly dumb that he ended up freezing her instead! Heh heh, heh...*sigh* well, that still wasn't the end of that particular chapter.

'It was Torque, wasn't it? Didn't he get kidnapped or something?'

Yes, Surgeon, that was exactly what happened. He managed to make his way out after I got him out, saying he was an innocent we had brought along for this hopeless little ride. It worked too...'till Brevon and his cronies found him, at least. I guess that he used his special Good Guy Tracker 9000 to find him or something.

'Actually, you're not that far off. Those from the planet Ferax are known for their tracking technology...and their apple pies.'

Wait, you know Brevon?

'His kind, yes. The Feraxians. Bit of a violent species unless you enter one of the dwindling peaceful settlements. Met Brevon's brother, you know. Nice chap. Fond of an arm wrestle.'

Oh. Well, Brevon had captured Torque and was about to subject him to tortures unknown to get the location of the Kingdom Stone outta him, locked up inside the Thermal Base, like some sorta animal. I remember the rain beating down on the leaves outside as me and Carol and Milla stared into the fire we made. Well, me and Milla did, anyway. I could feel Carol silently glare at me, then slowly get up from where she had been sitting and walk to the mouth of the cave we had settled down in for the night. Her breath was haunted, strung along by mumbling to herself as if she was rehearsing in her head over and over again. I had no idea at the time what she was planning at the time, unable to get inside her head and unable to understand why she was to be so angry at me. I feel...enraged by it now. Like, I can't believe that I could be so dumb, so shortsighted so-

'Lilly, that's normal. Everyone makes mistakes that they only recognise in hindsight, that they never notice at the beginning and that ends up screwing you over later down the line. Nothing to be ashamed of.'

It is when it ended up with the repercussions I brought upon myself...and the responsibilities that I heaped upon her.

"Lilac..." Carol sighed heavily, "What're we doing? Like, why in the name of The Magister's bath water are we doing this?!"

"Wha-" I tried to say, "What're you talking about?"

"Lilac, what the heck are we doing?!" Carol growled, her voice much harsher now, "Why're we risking our lives for people who barely care about us? We could be home right now, watching a movie!"

"Carol, what do you mean?" I asked in my confused state, "We signed up for this for...well, adventure! To save the world from people like Brevon, remember? It's just that it's had to take a bit of a detour. We need to rescue Torque, or-"

"Oh screw Torque," Carol growled, "All he's done is get us into countless trouble. Shocked, burned, slashed by robots, almost crushed by rubble, almost drowning in the creek! And then he just goes ahead and makes us wanted criminals. Number 1 and 2!"

"...What about 3?" Milla whined, "What about me?"

"What ABOUT you, Milla?" Carol asked, "We only met you a few days ago and already Lilac is paying you more attention than she ever did to me in a few YEARS."

"But-"

"NO, Lilac!" Carol yelled, "This is something that you've always had a problem with. ALWAYS. You always think you can just run into danger and be none the wiser. That you can charge into the world and emerge a hero. Spoilers, it doesn't always work out like that!"

There was a quiet pause as Carol caught her breath, while Milla had cowered into the corner of the cave, clearly terrified. I just sat there, trying my best to make sense of all of this. Like I said, I did not understand the problem here. All I wanted to do was be the hero...was that so bad?

'Well...'

DON'T ANSWER THAT!

'Sorry.'

"I mean...look at us..." Carol whimpered, trying to sound more sympathetic...and not doing a good job of it, "We're just kids, Lilac. What are we accomplishing, trying to take down someone like Brevon?"

I grimaced. Brevon. The name feared from across the galaxy, and not for selling cookies. Dangerous with a capital D. And the man who took over the Shuigang Kingdom, then tried to get rid of Torque. I shivered in my boots as I remembered the icon that Torque had shown us back at the treehouse. His glowing green grimace, his unwelcoming red eyes, his...feelers. Yeah, he had feelers for...some reason. Still, I knew he was to be feared. I even thought what I was doing was insane...but it had to be done. Otherwise, Torque would die, Brevon would get the Kingdom Stone and we'd all perish in the dust.

'Hmm. A very noble, if sadistic choice. Be the hero and risk everything you love...or do nothing and lose everything you know. I should know how tough it is. I...learned from experience. Made a lot of mistakes on my way there.'

Me too, Surgeon. Me too.

"Carol, we'va gotta do this!" I tried to reason, "If we don't, who will?"

"The Magister's Forces! Shang Mu's robots! The Red Scarves, maybe!" Carol growled, "ANYONE who can do this whole pointless thing better!"

"But... but it's not that easy! And we're not just kids, Carol!"

"Lilac, you've been wearing the same Fluffy Fairytale pants for years now! What kinda not-kid does that?"

I was hurt. Carol promised never to tell anyone about those pants! They were comfortable, alright? Don't judge me!

'Wasn't planning to. I went through a period where I thought my spaceship was my wife...and perhaps in another one of those things that might have been true.'

I was finally angry, enraged even, at just how stubborn Carol was being. It was getting on my nerves, and my pleading was getting me nowhere. There was only one thing left to do, something I really didn't want to do but felt pushed to; go on the attack as well. I growled something out, "Hey! That was a cheap shot, you coward!"

"...COWARD?!" Carol screamed, "You ran away from the Red Scarves, claiming you couldn't stand what they did for a living yet covering it up as 'finding your place in life' and you call ME a coward! Even when I saved your butt countless times in the Red Scarves."

"Then why're you backing out of this?!" I accused.

"Because THIS, Lilac, isn't any mere training exercise, or robbery. THIS, Lilac, is INSANITY!"

"Oh yeah?!"

"YEAH!"

"STOP!" Milla squealed from within the cave. She rushed forward to the front of the cave and got between us, "Please, stop! We won't be able to do anything if we just argue and leave each other. I...I don't want you two to leave each other!"

"She's right," I pleaded, "We CAN do this together, I know we can! We just need to team up and take Brevon down once and for all. With my speed, your strength and Milla's...cuteness, we will be able to save the day! Just please...don't just go and abandon me again."

"...Tough," Carol growled, grabbing the whining Milla by the scruff of the neck, "I trusted you, Lilac. I thought you'd changed for the better since those hot-headed days with the Red Scarves. But now? I see you've only gotten worse. Have fun getting your head chopped off by Brevon and all, 'cause I'm not sticking around to see it," she hoisted Milla onto her bike, "Come on, pup."

My heart sank like a cruise liner as Carol kickstarted her bike and sped off into the night, the sounds of its roaring engine slowly consumed by the heavy rain until there was nothing left. It left me alone, alone with my thoughts, alone with my mind. I was distressed, cold, hungry and thirsty, so this was the very last thing I wanted to deal with. Tears streamed down my face as I stood for a few seconds at the mouth of the cave, my emotions running wild. Finally, anger began to build up in my system; how could she? How the hell could she?! She abandoned ME, the hero of the land, left me to die!

...Like I said, I was so stupid back then.

'And like I said, there is nothing to be ashamed of in that. Heck, I ran from one of the most important battles in my whole life. I bolted at what my people called The Fall of Arcadia...maybe one day I'll come to terms with it.'

Finally, I lost my cool, screaming into the cold and harsh weather, vainly hoping Carol could have heard me; "FINE! I DON'T NEED YOU OR THAT PUP ANYWAY! I CAN TAKE DOWN BREVON AND SAVE THE DAY MY DAMN SELF!"

"Oh, that'll be the day, won't it?"

Wait...that voice wasn't familiar to me. Was it one of the guards? Was it that duck guard? Had they found me?! I turned around to see who had put themselves in my cave, my heart pumping like a jackhammer. And then, I saw who it was. Or rather, the three of them. You might have heard of them.

'You mean a wolf, a porcupine and a female hedgehog?'

Yes, those three. The wolf with the orange fur, and the beige trenchcoat. I remember that he also had a furry muzzle, strange eyes, like...the pupil was on the OUTSIDE, alongside some leather gloves, a bandoleer, goggles and those...I must admit ugly brown boots.

'Yes, Lowell then. Figures, I suppose. They've been PRETTY busy since...the event.'

Wait, what?

'N-Nothing. Say, do you remember what the other two looked like.'

Well, I remember the porcupine was incredibly tall, about one and a half times taller than me, with this really bulky, burly physique. He wore stuff a soldier would wear...well, parts of it. He wore what seemed to be a flak jacket of sorts, or maybe a bulletproof vest, adorned with a single pocket and some sort of symbol on the front of it. It was hard to see, partly because of his position in front of the fire and partly because we covered it with a black leather jacket and a handkerchief 'round his neck that had this really odd pattern on it. Also, I remember that he wore this, like this really strange hat that flopped over the sides of his head. Even though it was the spring and pretty warm outside even during the night. And he wore boots too, if I recall correctly. And...no pants.

'Yeah...they come from a world where they're not really required. It's a little bit complicated.'

And a little bit disgusting, I would wager. The last thing I remember was some sort of lever-operated contraption slung across his back. A shotgun, I think he called. The girl was...a bit more basic. As in, she wore pants, at least. She wore black overalls with a red shirt, red boots, black gloves with red fingers and a nice little baseball cap with...well, a black colour and red highlights...girl liked her black and red, is what I'm saying. I'm not complaining. It looked pretty chic, I think. Kind of helped with her pale skin and black fur. She had the same reverse-eyes as this Lowell guy, so I was actually sort of wondering if they were related.

'Married, to my personal knowledge.'

Really? Huh. The more you know. I merely stared at these three intruders at my campsite, looking at them with a look of shock and confusion on my face. Lowell was sitting by the fire, holding a stick with some marshmallows over it and watching both me and the marshmallows as the latter slowly turned a charred black within the flames. The porcupine was merely staring into the flames, as if he was thinking hard about something rather specific, with a bottle of water by his side. The female hedgehog, on the other hand, was staring straight at me, waving and cracking a sort of shy smile, what seemed to be a military food pack resting in her lap.

Finally, I foraged the courage to speak, "...Who are you people?"

"Ahh, just passing through," Lowell smirked, "Don't worry 'bout us."

"Well..." the female hedgehog shrugged, "Actually, it's a bit more important than that. We're here to help you."

"...What?" I asked, confused more now than ever, "What're you talking about?"

"What we're trying to say..." Lowell looked up at me, taking the marshmallows off the fire, "Is that we are here to prevent something horrible happening to both you and this world."

"A great evil approaches..." the porcupine growled in his deep and gravelly voice, accentuated by a very strange accent, "There is a chain of events that cannot be set in motion."

"It's about what you're about to do," the hedgehog spoke up, "...About Torque and Brevon."

"...What about it?" I asked cautiously, not sure if they heard me and Carol argue, "How's it gonna hurt me?"

"In so many ways," the porcupine sighed, finally looking up from the flames and looking at me with a stoic face, "You would not believe what exactly will happen to you if you decide to rescue your friend alone. The man they know as Brevon, he is incredibly strong. He is not something you can merely blow off. He is not something you recover from."

"Oh come on, he can't be that bad!" I scoffed, "I've seen what he's capable of. And THAT ain't a lot. If he's like his snake lackey, the guy's a pushover!"

Lowell sighed, "And...how do you know that, exactly?"

I stopped. My face fell slightly, then completely, as I truly thought about what I was to do; he was right. I had no idea what Brevon was truly like. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do this. I said it all the time on the surface, but even then, deep down, something felt very wrong. Something made me feel like this was all, for lack of a better word, suicidal. But it wasn't really something I would always listen to. It was just contradictions, fear talking, stuff that kept me back over the years. So I guess I just ignored it all after a while. But this time, this time, it felt unavoidable. Like I really wanted to go get him, but now that I had a chance to calm down and think about it...

I walked forward slowly, then placed myself in front of the fire, opposite the three, "...Alright. What would happen to me?"

The three looked a bit uncomfortable, like they knew this was going to be hard to explain to me, but they knew they had to do it anyway. The hedgehog was first to speak up;

"Well...there's no easy way to say this...but if you went into the base on your own, you'd die and Brevon would win. Simple as that. Here's what I mean by that. I know it can be hard to believe at times, but there's not just this world out there. There's an amount of them, that's...difficult to measure. Different timelines, each splitting at every opportunity, splitting into endless possibilities. A million different worlds, a million different yous, a million different outcomes for every single one of them. And there's a sort of general "canon", for lack of a better word, about how these worlds would go. Normally, you would enter the Thermal Base, you would get so close to Torque, but..."

"You would..." Lowell gulped, "Brevon would find you. You'd try to rush him, and he'd respond by...cutting off your tendrils, hooking you to a machine and frying you to a crisp."

I stopped breathing, if only for a little bit, at this news; I'd get tortured? By ol' Breadbasket? That sounded horrible! It felt...sickening. But still, it got worse. The petting zoo people continued, with the porcupine going first.

"At this point, you are supposed to be saved, to be rescued from your predicament by those you thought had abandoned you. You would be transported to the Shang Tu palace once more, and fed into this healing pool that would restore you to your physical prime."

"Oh?" I asked, "Well, that's comforting."

"But sadly, you will not get that chance," the porcupine sighed heavily, "The multiverse is a cruel place. Our gods and creators are driven by anger, by greed, and by petty jealousy. Only very few of you get the chance to use that bath. Most do not. And most suffer dearly for their hubris. Some take it well enough. Some go mad from the pain. Some end up indoctrinated into the madman Brevon's service. But many more...simply die."

"That's what'd happen to you," the hedgehog sighed, "The energies would just be too much. It should completely stop your heart, stop it beating...and you would die in agony. I'm so sorry..."

More tears were flowing for me now. I was in denial; No, this couldn't be my fate! To be fried by some monster who looked like a giant cockroach...and laid to waste by him. To die in such pain after I had done so much, merely cast aside like a bit of burnt salmon, it wasn't real! It couldn't have been real! It...was it real, Surgeon?

'For one version of you, anyway. Universe FP-083. They were wrong about the heart thing, though. You bled out right in front of Brevon as he smiled on.'

Oh...thanks.

'Sorry. Went into too much detail again, didn't I?'

Yeah. So anyway, I looked at these three madmen with a look of horror on my face, "N-No! That's not true, it can't be! I don't believe you!"

"You do not have to believe us," the porcupine sighed, "It happened nevertheless. With you out of the way, the three kingdoms too busy in their pointless civil war and Torque's morale extinguished, Brevon was able to use the Kingdom Stone to repower his ships. He took his Final Dreadnought into the sky, blasting your cities into slag with his missiles and lasers. Your world, for lack of a better term, went to hell."

"I...I..." I stammered, unable to reply or make a comeback. I was, well, speechless.

"FP-083 is now little more than a wasteland," Lowell continued coldly, "Nothing but wreckage for miles around. And, somehow, those kings and majisters still found it prudent to fight for power...those who weren't integrated into Brevon's forces, at least. Eventually, the last man managed to climb atop the corpses, state he won...then keel over from his wounds."

"...Why?" I asked myself, so many questions flooding into my head, "Why does this happen? Why does Brevon just WIN?!" I turned to the three, "Why the heck have you told me all this?!"

"For the same reason that we're here. To let you know what exactly you're getting into..." Lowell stood up and stared at me in a heroic manner over the flames, "And we're sure as hell gonna fix that."

"...What?" I asked.

"We cannot save your other self," the porcupine sighed, standing up too, "We are not allowed to tamper with realities who have had their destinies decided by others. But this world...no-one has decided the fate of this one, yet. We have hope. And we may be labelled as...opportunists or meddlers..."

"Or those that ever-popular term Fixer-Sues..." the hedgehog grumbled.

"But let it be known, we will avert this fate that those petty creators have bestowed upon you. We will help you save your alien friend, destroy this Brevon monstrosity and bring an end to this power-mad conflict."

"What d'ya say?" Lowell asked, stretching his hand forward, "You in?"

I paused for thought. Was this something I really wanted to do? I still didn't know these people, I didn't even know their names! How could I trust them? Then again, how exactly could I trust Torque either? And he led me...in decent directions, I guess. If what they saying was in any way true...then I supposed...suppose...guessed at the time that I had little choice but to do so. They would've come in handy down the line, I thought. Perhaps I could really save the day with these guys. Maybe even prove to Carol what she was missing out on...

"Uh, could you make a decision, please?" Lowell asked, "My arm's getting really hot over this fire."

"Oh! Sorry!" I said, quickly taking his hand and shaking it, "I'm in. If what you're saying is true, then it'll be for the best. Even then, I could do with the extra help. Let's show Carol what proper teamwork is, Mr...uh, what's your name?"

"Name's Lowell," the wolf grinned. He pointed to the hedgehog, "This is Katherine..." then to the porcupine, "And this is Nikolai."

"Nice names..." I said, looking at Lowell and his...odd clothes, "And nice clothes, too. What's that in that belt around your chest?"

Lowell looked confused, before he looked down and quietly went, "Oh..." he grabbed the object and pulled it out of his bandoleer, showing it to me; it was a strange weapon of sorts, with a long tube attached to a hub of sorts with a trigger and small box inserted into the grip, "This thing?" I nodded, "Right...probably not a thing that is normally seen in your world. It's what we call a gun, specifically a pistol; fires small chunks of metal via tiny explosions. Devastating in the right hands. Custom model, actually. .40 S&W calibre."

"Oooooh," I crowed in wonder, "Can I play with it?"

"...No!" Lowell shouted, causing me to jump in shock, "I just said, these things don't exist in your world. No treatment, no idea how to deal with one, nothing. God only knows what exactly would happen if this fell into the wrong hands..."

...Foreshadowing much?

'Yeah, he has a habit of doing that. He told me he's trying to stop it.'

"Okay..." I sighed, "Sorry."

"It's okay," Lowell grinned, slipping the handgun back into his bandoleer, "Now, how 'bout we come up with the perfect plan..."


	3. Chapter 3: They of Action

The Surgeon stared at Lilac, face smoothly wandering into one of a quizzical nature, stroking his chin with his gloved hand and resting the other on his lap, "So, the Vigilante Trio helped you out, huh? Well, I guess that is to be somewhat expected. They DO like helping people."

Lilac too stared at her companion, "Oh? Do you know them?"

"Personally," The Surgeon stated, almost looking proud of this fact and yet not so much, "They're a bunch of people from a universe known as SH-123. A very different world from yours, where this speedy blue hedgehog known as Sonic is the one to save the day. He and you have more in common than you're probably aware of."

"Really?" Lilac asked, "How so?"

The Surgeon paused, looking a bit lost, but then shrugged, "Eh, that's sort of something for another time. For the most part, they're actual vigilantes, hunting down people across the worlds that they think, uh...don't deserve living. But let's just say a few wires got crossed across the multiverse...to put it lightly, and now they sometimes work with the No-Zone as peacekeepers, helping however they can. They're officially called Team Genesis, but a lot of people just call them the Vigilante Trio. Or The Fixer-Sues, if you're feeling a little nasty."

"So, they operate inside...AND outside of the No-Zone laws?" Lilac asked, to which The Surgeon shrugged, "Huh. But if that's the case, why did they say they couldn't help the other me? Why couldn't they fix this me that much? What did they mean about a universe's destiny?"

The Surgeon looked forlorn, "...Like I said, not everyone gets a happy ending. Some people are destined by the multiverse to end up as completely different to what they started as. Some live, some die, some stay sane and some go mad. Some never even get born at all. That's just how the multiverse works, every possible outcome played out across all of eternity. And if one of those worlds goes out of sync...well, the results are not pretty. The No-Zone has only just recovered from a paradox of extreme scale called simply The Event. Nasty thing, that was, so they take a rather...dismal view on those attempting to change a universe's timeline...unless that change is part of the universe's destiny, of course."

"And if it isn't?"

"Well..." The Surgeon chuckled, "Let's just say you don't want to meet one angry No-Zoner, never mind a whole squad of 'em. So this trio found a universe with no determined destiny, similar to the one where you...kicked it, and tried to help this version of you get on a very different, much more positive track."

Lilac looked solemnly down at the wheelchair she was still stuck in, "Well, they did well, didn't they? I mean, I guess I'm not DEAD...but..." she sighed, "Should I continue with my story? I should at least answer your question, no?"

"Well, if you want to," The Surgeon looked a bit forlorn again, "I...understand this is probably hard for you."

"Hey, better than letting it bottle up...again," Lilac sighed, "Okay then. Here we go again. The trip through the Thermal Base was...trivially easy, actually. With those guns they had, it was a cinch. Lowell's handgun wasn't the only weapon he had on him, he also had this thing he called an assault rifle, which he used to great effect. Nikolai's "shotgun" was devastating at close quarters and Katherine's "sniper rifle" stopped enemies before they even got all that close. We made it through the whole complex in about three or so minutes, fighting guards and robots all the way. We even managed to scrap Syntax, what Brevon called his super-special AI. But then...something got released. Something...hot.

===-===  
The intense heat of the lava pumping through the corridor made my heart pump like about seven jackhammers as I and the others dashed through the base, trying to find some way, ANY way, to get out of the area as soon as possible. We knew that, if that lava touched us, we weren't coming back out of it. Everything would be done for. But even then, I felt...a sort of numbness towards it. Like, I knew I wasn't going to die here, if it was destiny that Brevon would get his grubby mitts on me. Knowing my life was...already decided.

'I know. It can be distressing, can't it? Knowing everything you do has been pre-thought out.'

...Actually, I found it kind of reassuring at the time. Like, I knew I wasn't in danger that much until we ran into Brevon himself. And even then, I had more than enough backup to ensure that my path would change for the better. At least, that was the idea. That didn't make the fears any less real. After all, what if Lowell was lying? What if I somehow defied my own destiny...whatever it was? Still had to focus on the running, though, my boots clomping on the heavy floor as hard as my pounding pulse as the lava slowly inched closer and closer. I was...ecstatic, I had never felt so happy and invigorated in my life! Which, to be fair, was gonna be rather short if I didn't shift my gears a bit.

We continued our rush through the corridors, Lowell picking off the robots that still dared to attack us with his handgun, our legs slowly burning from the stress of the sprinting. And the encroaching lava, of course. But then, finally, we found an exit; an open latch, buried into the floor, with controls by its side. It seemed to us that, if the controls were pushed, the latch would slide over and the lava would sail over us and we would be safe.

'And all that in a couple seconds? Didn't know you had a few Time Lord abilities!'

Well, it was all in hindsight, really. It's kinda hard to think of a plan when all that's running through your mind is "OH GOD THE LAVA'S GOING TO BURN ME UP I'M GONNA DIE". I quickly pointed to Lowell and barked something at him. Even now I don't remember what I told him, or if I told him anything at all, but he nevertheless seemed to understand what I was babbling about. He raised his handgun and fired at the control box, a small spark erupting from the big red button it, which responded by flashing a green light and beeping. He grabbed my shoulder, while Nikolai grabbed Katherine's, and we managed to jump through the latch just as it finally closed. It was a long way down, but finally, we hit the floor with a sickening crunch. And oh The Great Dragon, it hurt. I think I landed on my back, as the pain was its absolute strongest there. We all looked up at the latch, watching it close and become imbued with warm orange colours as the lava zoomed over us and into the distance. We sighed heavily and slumped down back onto the floor. We were safe.

"Blimey, that was close," Lowell panted, getting up and still holding my hand, "Is everyone okay?"

"I'm up," Katherine groaned.

"I am up, too," Nikolai growled.

"Uuuuuuuurgh..." I moaned, arching and rolling over where I lay, "No...no, I'm in pain..."

"Give me a second..." Lowell said quickly. He rushed to my side and slowly helped me into a sitting position. Now I knew for sure that something was wrong with my back, as now an extreme pain rattled through me. I yelled out in pain, gritting my teeth to bare through it, while Lowell quickly slipped his goggles on and checked out my back.

I heard the goggles beep and Lowell sigh, "Well, the X-Ray scans aren't showing anything serious. You've got a few cracks on your spine and ribs, weakening the bone near the bottom."

"Oh no..." I called out, somewhat delirious from the pain, "Is that good?"

"Well if you consider losing all possible function in your legs to be good," Katherine sighed, "Which I'm just going to assume you're not. Don't worry, though. Nothing a little blood magic can't fix."

"Wait, what?" I asked.

Nikolai turned to look at me, "I will keep it simple; they are a very specific brand of vampires, able to control viscous liquids such as blood. She can use it to..repair you."

"Well that's comforting," I sighed.

Katherine nodded, "It is. All I need to do is control the blood to...uh, reorganise their shape and form to fill in the cracks in the bone, then patch up any small rips in the surrounding tissue. Simple."

"Good..." I groaned "Better hurry up. I feel like someone hit me in the head with a jackhammer..."

"WELL, MISSY..." I heard an off-screen voice say, a growling one that reeked out a thousand brutal deaths, "THAT CAN BE ARRANGED..."

I whined a little, a new bout of fear spreading into my mind. I didn't even have to guess who that was, the tone of the voice alone was more than enough...it was Brevon. I slowly scrambled to my feet in anticipation, looking on as his hulking green body slowly clomped its way into the corridor alongside a few of his robotic soldiers, no more than eyeballs bouncing around in tanks of green liquid and connected to metal bodies with laser rifles. Effective enough foot soldiers, I suppose.

Brevon's orange armour clanked as he finally stopped in front of the four of us, looking down at our broken bodies with a sneer. He glanced around, then at me, seemingly recognising me on sight, "WELL WELL WELL, IF IT ISN'T THE LITTLE DRAGON GIRL AND HER FAWNING SIDEKICKS. APOLOGIES FOR RUINING YOUR PICNIC, BUT I CANNOT HAVE YOU KIDS RUNNING AROUND, TRYING YOUR HARDEST TO RUIN MY PLANS."

I growled and got into a battle stance, "Unhand Torque, you monster!"

"TORQUE?" Brevon asked in his faux-sophisticated tone, "AH. YOU MEAN THE CHASER, DO YOU NOT? OH DON'T WORRY, HE HAS NOT BEEN HARMED. I WAS SAVING HIM FOR SUCH A SPECIAL OCCASION, WAITING FOR THE PERFECT TIME TO FIND SOMEONE CLOSE TO HIM."

"Wait..." Nikolai said quietly, "Did he tell you all about he-...I mean, us?"

"TO AN EXTENT, YES," Brevon growled, "HE TOLD ME STORIES OF THE SO-CALLED WONDER DRAGON, HOW SHE HAD DESTROYED MY ARMADA, TRIED TO PREVENT THE THEFT OF THE KINGDOM STONE, ESCAPED THE POLICE OF THIS WRETCHED TERMITE BALL, AND NOW SHE HAS COME TO SEE ME IN PERSON..." Brevon cackled, "HOW KIND."

"You're gonna pay for what you've done, you creep!" I yelled, throwing myself at him and rushing fist first.

Lowell could only get out a "LILAC NO!" before Brevon flashed a devious smile and reached for his blade. It was a long one, covered in a sort of green blood that never ran out, and it was sharp...and painful. Sidestepping my advances, as to get a clear view of my back...he slashed.

'Yes, I've heard what Brevon could do with that knife. Most Lilacs end up getting their tendrils completely severed.'

Yeah, I suppose I was lucky in that regard.

'What, did he miss?'

I think so. I'm not even sure if he managed to connect with something. I certainly heard a massive bang as Brevon yelled out in pain. I fell to the ground, narrowly missing the wall, and turned to see Brevon clutch his hand as a stream of green blood poured out of it. I looked up to see Lowell, the barrel to his gun smoking and a look of anger on his face.

Brevon looked at him in a sort of pained bemusement, "A FIREARM? IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME SINCE I LAST SAW ONE OF THOSE. I THOUGHT THIS PLANET WAS ON THE LEVEL OF SPEARS AND KINGS."

"I'm...not from around here," Lowell growled.

"WELL BRAVO NEVERTHELESS," Brevon said mockingly, "FAR SUPERIOR TO THAT SEEN IN THE HANDS OF THE REST OF THESE BACKWATER FOOLS. BUT STILL, A PRIMITIVE WEAPON FOR A MORE BACKWARDS AGE."

"And that's not my real concern," Lowell growled again, "Lilac is under MY care, and you will NOT-OOF!"

Lowell grunted in pain as one of the robotic soldiers bashed him in the face with the stock of his laser gun, sending him crumpling to the floor. Nikolai responded with silent shock while Katherine responded with a noise that could only be described as a rusty gate creaking in the wind as Lowell crumpled into a heap and his gun flew out of his hands, sliding towards Brevon. I tried to reach for it, but Brevon responded with a brutal stomp to the arm and scooping the pistol off of the ground.

Nikolai, as it turns out, could snark like a king, "Perhaps next time you should spend more time protecting and less time boasting."

"Shut up, Nikolai..." Lowell grumbled, still on the floor.

Brevon chuckled, "OH, THIS IS WONDERFUL. I AM SURE THE REST OF YOU WILL NOT BE IN THE SAME SORT OF MIND TO TRY AND ATTACK ME..." Brevon grabbed me by the neck, lifting me to his eye level with his one hand, I struggled and choked as I tried to escape his strong grasp. He continued, "WELL THEN, LET'S SEE HOW HEROIC YOU FEEL WHEN YOU HAVE A MILLION VOLTS COURSING THROUGH THAT SMALL BODY OF YOURS..."

I began to panic internally. This was it! I was gonna get shocked! This would finally be the end of me!

'...Well, you're still here...'

Yes Surgeon, of course I am. And there's a reason for that. I tried my hardest to ensure that my fear was not at all visible to him, but his hateful sneering face spoke to me, even then, that I was doing a poor job of it. I stared at the three, hoping they had some sort of idea. Lowell was still getting to his feet, Katherine was keeping her weapon trained on the soldiers around her, but Nikolai was staring aimlessly into the thin air, as is some horrible thought was rattling around within his head. Finally, he looked up and outstretched his hand, "Wait!"

Brevon stopped glaring at me and turned to face the porcupine, "WHAT IS IT?"

"...Take me."

"What?!" Lowell cried out in shock, "Nikolai what are you doi-"

Nikolai clasped his hand over Lowell's mouth and continued, "I have worked with the Coalition of Planets in the past. I know a lot more about the powers of the Kingdom Stone than this dragon does. She is but an innocent in this crazy war. She should not suffer for the actions of my own."

"YOU ARE A BRAVE MAN," Brevon chuckled slyly, "BUT FOOLISH. I HAVE NO ABILITY TO JUST TRUST YOUR WORDS...BUT IF WHAT YOU SAID IS TRUE, THEN YOU WILL PROBABLY BE TO MY ADVANTAGE. AND IF NOT..." Brevon drew his other thumb across his neck, "YOUR DEATH WILL BE SLOW."

"I do not fear death, monster!" Nikolai growled, "I have died before! Give me your worst!"

"GLADLY..." Brevon said coldly. The world became a blur for me before I slammed into the ground at strong speeds...right onto my back again. This time pain racked throughout my entire body, causing a weakening, aching sensation that kept me on the floor. I could only lay where I had landed, body aching all over, as Brevon grabbed Nikolai by the shoulder and hauled him off to who knows where. He finally turned to his guards, "SEIZE THEM. THEY WILL MAKE GREAT BARTERING FOR THE THREE KINGDOMS, SHOULD THINGS NOT GO ACCORDING TO PLAN..."

I was grabbed by two of the soldiers, who hauled my broken body across the floor to the other two and began to march in lockstep down the corridor. I could only sustain consciousness for a little longer, enough to see Katherine's worried face and Lowell's born of fury before the pain got too much and I blacked out.

"Kath...why did he do that? Why?"

"He's survived worse, hubby. I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Let's hope so. 'Cause if he isn't, Brevon's going to make damn sure he knows my One Rule. You screw with my friends...you screw with ME."


	4. Chapter 4: Into the Dark

"Yep, sounds like Lowell, alright," The Surgeon chuckled, pouring the hot water into his tea cup, "Always fiercely protective of his people. His friends, I should say."

"He kind of reminds me of what I am now..." Lilac sighed, holding her own Surgeon-created tea in her hands, "Well, maybe Carol. Always overprotective. Though, I'm going to guess he had a reason."

"No less a reason than Carol's," The Surgeon shrugged, "But a reason nevertheless. In his timeline, Nikolai...sacrificed himself. He took a bullet for Lowell from the Big Bad of the hour, and he bled out in time. Lowell flew into a rage, attacking the Big Bad with such savagery, something that awakened...terrible memories in all of the rest of 'em. Ended up crushing their ribcage with his sledgehammer in the end."

"But...he was with me," Lilac sipped her tea, "Nikolai, I mean."

"Yes. Because someone managed to find a way to bring him back to life. Restore him. Give him new energies. Much like the canon version of you. Except those scars still run deep in him, they didn't just go away like they probably did with you. Lowell in particular. He didn't even get hurt but he never really healed from it either."

"Did it have something to do with this...Event?"

The Surgeon grimaced, looking grim, as if he didn't want to answer that. He cleared his throat and attempted to anyway, "Well..." he sighed, "Let's just say this Event taught that tight-knit group a few things. They won't be around for each other forever. They can rely on themselves, but they can't protect each other every time. And they can't always tank such hits with smiles on their faces. So they've devoted the other half of their time ensuring they get everything they want done with each other done...'cause Lord knows one day there won't be another chance to do so."

"...Grim."

"Yep..." Surgeon sighed, "...SO! How 'bout we continue with your story?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, sure. Anyway, not much really happened during the time I was marched to wherever they were taking. The prison cells, I think, so that Brevon could just come get us if he had to. I was actually relieved, for a while, because I had managed to escape this fate, but guilty too, as someone had just ended up taking my place. Something had to be done. And I think the others had a plan..."

===-===  
There was a loud crashing noise as the robot soldiers around me fell, throwing me to the floor. Lowell had managed to wrestle out of the grip of his captors, having kicked one of them in the eye tank and throwing the other over his head like a wrestler. Guess anger really can make you stronger. The two robots had fallen to the floor and he proceeded to do the same to the robots keeping me upright, pulling the arm off of the first and jamming it into the eye tank of the second, spreading green juice and that disgusting eyeball across the floor. I decided to help as much as I could, getting to my feet and stomping on the eye to make sure it was dead; it squished like a bug, spreading goop and a horrific smell across the room. I regretted it instantly, reeling from the smell and trying my hardest not to be sick as the invading stench hit me like a freight train. I watched on, briefly disoriented, as Katherine managed to pull off a powerful cartwheel kick against one of her captors too, before grabbing her own gun from really nowhere and smashing the other in the tank with the stock of it. Lowell, on the other hand, had dug a long yellow pole with some sort of heavy metal head on it...

'His sledgehammer, then. Did it have fire axes taped to it?'

...It did, actually. He used it to slam down on another robot, reducing it to scrap metal in the process. I didn't have the time to be impressed, though. I still had to fight my own robots. The one that Lowell had ripped the arm off of wasn't quite ready to give up and got to its feet with an angry look in its eye. I grinned, cocky and ready to brawl, daring the creature to approach. It did, rushing forward and swinging its massive remaining arm like a cudgel, but I dodged at the last second and gave it a powerful kick to the back. It leapt forward, gizmos spreading out of its exit wound, and I followed it up by grabbing my tendrils and giving what remained a vicious whipping that cracked the tank and then burst it on the second strike. I uppercut what remained of the body into the air, sending it flying onto the pile of robotic shrapnel that had formed around the area, and before we knew it, we were alone in the corridor.

"Okay..." Lowell sighed, setting his sledgehammer down, "That was fun. We all good? Katherine?"

"I'm good!"

Lowell turned to me, "Lilac?" I simply nodded. Lowell seemed content, "Okay then. Look, let's get out of here. We need to stop Brevon from putting enough volts up Niko's backside to light up the whole of Vegas. Any ideas?"

"...I dunno," Katherine shrugged, "I've never seen this place before. Lilac?"

I paused, "...I do, actually. They called this place Thermal Base A002. Used to be in Shang Tu territory before the three kingdoms agreed on more specified borders. It helped to power the main city itself, but it also supplied a bit of power to Shang Mu as well, as a formality. I even had a friend who worked here part-time. It was abandoned when it first went haywire. Turns out no-one put proper...energy absorbing...things in the reserves, so if too much energy went in there it'd overload."

"Well that's just shoddy design," Lowell said, clicking a button on his goggles and putting them on, "So if we can find the generators used to divert this energy to the...torture room, we should be able to siphon it away from the machine that Brevon is undoubtedly strapping Nikolai to and divert it to the main reserves..."

"Overloading this place and blowing it to high heaven!" I yelled, "Genius!"

"Right, studying the plans now..." Lowell said, staring into space as he studied whatever was inside his goggles, "Right...there are four generators built specifically for electricity. Clearly, this madman like his voltage strong. They're all above the room in the service ducts, so we just need to head down and enter them. This way..."

SOMETIME LATER...

The panel sparked in a violent fashion as we shielded ourselves from the damage we had inflicted into the third generator. As it turns out, Brevon had not rebuilt the place as much as I was expecting, the service ducts especially. I was expecting there to be robots and traps and massive dragons made of lava that shot lasers out of their noses, but...well, I think I saw one of the service robots try and scare us. Something Lowell put an end to with a sledgehammer straight to the eyepiece. We were rushing through the ducts as fast as our crawling could allow, somewhat to get the drop on Brevon as soon as possible, but also to ensure that Nikolai was not damaged.

"Right, that's the third one," Lowell growled, "Final one's off to the side, right next to a service hatch. This way!"

Lowell crawled off to the side as he said, moving in a westerly direction, and we followed suit. It actually didn't take all that long before the generator appeared to us within the darkness, it's basic and informal panelled body bringing something of a relief to me in some manner. It was one that had three lights on the front panel, all glowing green. It turns out that, if enough damage was done to the generator to the point that those lights went red, the power would automatically syphon off to the main reserves. Three generators in, I swear I could already hear the reserves going critical and the base ready to blow at any second. We stopped crawling;

"This is it!" Katherine whispered, "Let's get this done. Where are we, anyway?"

"I don't know..." Lowell sighed, "This isn't on the map, none of the service ducts are..."

As they talked, I was eyeing the service hatch to the side of us. There seemed to be sounds of heavy breathing and struggling from below us, and fear slowly crept across my face. Grabbing the hatch, I slowly creaked it open and looked into the room. My fears were indeed confirmed; it was the torture room that the others had tried so hard to keep me out of. On one side of the room, Brevon stood by the controls to some massive pillar of a machine with a grin on his face, while on the other side was Nikolai.

"Guys..." I whispered fearfully, "I think I know where we are..."

Lowell's ears perked up and he rushed to my side, peering down into the room himself. He could only look on, a tad fearful about what Brevon might do to him, but kept himself in this spot until it was clear we had the advantage.

"SO, PORCUPINE..." Brevon snarled, "IF WHAT YOU ARE SAYING IS TRUE, THEN THE KINGDOM STONE...IS A WASTE OF MY TIME?"

"Yes," Nikolai snarled back, no weakness in his voice, "The Kingdom Stone is nothing more than a trinket, a legend, no? Something the idiot leaders of this worthless world decided to try and use to destroy each other. By boasting that they had the power to split gods in half!" He paused, giving Brevon time to mug at him, before he continued, "Believe me...I know from experience, no-one is meant to have that sort of power. They would become gods themselves, angry and vengeful. The last person in the world who should have it...is you."

"HOW NOBLE," Brevon cackled, "PITY I DON'T BELIEVE A WORD OF IT. THE KINGDOM STONE HAS SHOWN ME ITS POWERS BEFORE, TURNING MY FOOT SOLDIERS FROM EYES IN TANKS TO A COMPETENT FIGHTING FORCE. SOMETHING YOU AND YOUR WORTHLESS FRIENDS SHOULD HAVE NO BUSINESS FIGHTING. SO TELL ME, BEFORE I KILL YOU...WHY DO YOU FIGHT THOSE LIKE ME?"

"Because..." Nikolai grinned, "Because of people like you. Because your kind could bring the whole multiverse to a grinding halt if they were not stopped. I exist to end tyrants! That is my purpose in life."

"THEN YOU HAVE NO PURPOSE. YOUR FRIENDS ARE NOT COMING TO SAVE YOU, PORCUPINE. YOU ARE ALONE, AND I CAN HAVE MY WAY WITH YOUR WASTE OF A BODY IN ANY WAY I CHOOSE. SET THE VOLTAGE TO MAXIMUM. LET US SEE HOW MUCH THIS MAN BOASTS WITH ENOUGH ELECTRICITY TO DOWN A DRAGON COURSING THROUGH HIS VEINS..."

I could only stare on in realised horror as the machine booted up and shocked the poor porcupine to within an inch of his life. The whole room blazed with light blue light and the boosted sound of crackling electricity as white-hot electric lashes struck his body, which visibly twitched and spasmed and even began to char slightly. Nikolai scrunched his eyes tight in pain, but he didn't cry out, only grunting loudly as he tried his best to resist the energies. I continued to stare, silent, tears streaming from my eyes. Is this what I was supposed to go through? Was this the torture that permeated the whole of my timeline?

'Well for lack of a better answer...yes.'

...And I put him through that in my place. All that pain, all those burns...I feel so guilty...

'Oh, don't cry Lilly. He took your place for a reason. He sacrificed his health so that your own wouldn't be damaged forever. He'd certainly be able to take it a lot better. Though I do sort of feel like that was missing the point of something...no idea what, though...'

I myself was terrified, not only of what Brevon was doing, but imagining the sheer rage that had locked itself onto Lowell's face; I didn't want to look. Finally, the electricity stopped and Nikolai went limp, panting and groaning as his body continued to twitch from the after-effects of the treatment. Already his skin had begun to blister and his fur began to char. Clearly whatever Lord Breadbasket was pumping into him, it was a lot. Brevon cackled and slowly approached the cooked Nikolai.

"WELL..." he said smugly, "HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW? STILL FEEL LIKE A HERO?"

Nikolai responded by spitting on the alien's face in a show of defiance. The madman wiped the spit from his face and responded by punching Nikolai square in the face, causing a yelp of pain to erupt from his otherwise silent form and for his head to go limp.

"Chaos..." Katherine whispered, horrified, "This guy's an animal...a monster! Lowell, what're we gonna...Lowell?"

Katherine had looked around and found nothing to show that Lowell was still around them. I looked too, having only seen a faint flash of orange and beige before staring into empty space. I looked behind her, towards the generator, and all I could see was Lowell positively savage the machine with his sledgehammer, screaming incoherently and seemingly foaming at the mouth. I guess he REALLY didn't take that well. With the final generator offline, and the reserves fit to bursting point, the engine rooms below us finally began to go critical. Explosions below us rocked the internals to its core, and it was fairly sure that most of the people below us had probably become submerged in lava. Which included that awful AI, so hey I wasn't complaining.

"...WHAT IS THAT?" Brevon asked, "WHAT IS THAT RUMBLING? WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"It is...the One Rule..." Nikolai replied, his voice still strong, "The very One Rule; mess with one's friends, you mess with that one. Having friends tends to help a lot more than you...creatures ever admit."

"HOW?!" Brevon growled, "HOW?! HOW WAS I BEATEN BY SOME COMIC BOOK REJECTS?! AND HOW ARE YOU STILL TALKING?! WHY ARE YOU NOT CRYING OR SCREAMING? WHY ARE YOU NOT INJURED?!"

"One, friends," Nikolai sighed, before his face twisted into a sort of crazy smile, not unlike Brevon himself, "Two...ice powers."

Time seemed to slow down for a few seconds after that as Brevon began to realise just what he meant by that...and he panicked. There was a roaring flash as the consoles in front of him exploded, peppering him with shrapnel that barely dented his orange armour but nevertheless stumbled him, leaving Nikolai to make his move. He concentrated, the sound that ice makes when you crunch on it filled the room alongside the explosions, and two sheets of ice formed over his hand restraints and, with one swift movement, they shattered. Brevon recoiled fully from the sparks from the console, grabbing the laser pistol stuffed into his belt and aiming at Nikolai's face. He never got the chance to fire, however, as Nikolai quickly fired another round from his hand and it went ZOOOM and slammed into Brevon's hand, causing it to freeze his entire arm solid.

'Sounds like you really enjoyed the spectacle.'

Are you kidding? It was AMAZING! I almost didn't see Lowell jump down to the floor, once more an orange blur by my side, before he dashed across the floor and rammed Brevon with his sledgehammer, shattering the frozen arm like glass. I heard Brevon scream and collapse to the floor, and then him grunting some more as Lowell towered over him and began savagely punching him. I dropped down and, with Katherine's help, tore the machine off of the power grid and then set to work on releasing Nikolai from his bonds. The locks were dang complex, so I resorted to trying to bash them open, and one by one we got them undone as Nikolai softly suffered in front of us. My anger peaked at his mistreatment, but I never got the chance to make it known. Lowell was too busy doing that. I could hear Brevon grunt in pain from the strikes, but it was soon drowned out by whumping sounds as Lowell continued his assault.

"You think it's funny, huh?!" Lowell roared as another punch hit its mark in Brevon's soft face, "You think it's funny when you torture people?! YOU SAVAGE!"

"Hun!" Katherine rushed over to Lowell, grabbing his shoulders and hoisting him off of Brevon's broken body, "We haven't got time for this! The whole station's going critical remember?!"

"Yeah, we'll deal with him later" I called out, having bashed open the final restraint, "We gotta go, while we even can!"

There was a clank as the restraints gave way and Nikolai thumped to the ground, shivering and smelling of burnt fur but otherwise still healthy and alive. Katherine approached his side, "Are you okay, Nikolai? That looked like extremely painful!"

"Understatement..." Nikolai panted, "Of the century..."

"You poor thing..." Katherine said quickly, "I've gotta quickly heal your wounds, hold still!"

"I will heal," Nikolai replied adamantly, pushing Katherine to her feet, "Now it is time to run!"

"Right!" Lowell said quickly, "Let's go!"

After that, things got a bit...blurry. I don't remember a lot of it. I just remember...running. Running and rushing and stumbling through the corridors as it all went to hell around us. As we had anticipated, the reserves had become overflowed with the excess electricity Brevon was pouring into Nikolai's body, which of course we had passed into the reserves themselves, and they had exploded with extreme force. The rest of the systems it was attached to began to go supernova too, in a spectacular chain reaction, resulting in explosions all around us as we rushed to find a way out.

'Heh, that brings back memories of my Eighth incarnation! Old...twisted...terrible memories but memories nevertheless.'

The sprint was exhausting, setting my legs almost literally on fire from a combination of the strain and the sheer heat from the lava slowly rushing around us. As long as we could stay in front of it, not hard considering how fast we were running, we were fine. We blasted through the base, rushing from corridor to corridor, jumping over spikes and through tubes, avoiding or shooting down robots to the best of our abilities; I even managed to knock a few of the peskier ones out of the sky with my trusty Dragon Boost, roaring and ripping through them with all of the force I could muster. Finally, we found a way out; a wall collapsed from the strain, allowing us a clear shot of the lake and land. I blazed through a few more robots and I landed, running alongside the two to the best of my abilities, "Hey, where's Torque? We forgot Torque!"

"No," Nikolai growled, "I managed to get the madman to divert him away from the base. Brevon had caught him napping, he can blast his way out. We will meet him on the shoreline where we started!"

"Cool!" I...I said, "L-Let's get outta...get outta..."

'Lilac? Are you okay? Y-Your voice is wavering...is this where it happened?'

...I didn't see him at the time. I didn't see him rise from the rubble, an angry sneer on his face. Wounded, scarred, bleeding, broken...and wielding Lowell's handgun.

"YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE ME UNSCATHED..." I couldn't hear him shout, "DRAGON GIRL!"

I only heard the crack of the bullet flying through the air. I felt the excruciating pain in my backside, the numbness in my lower body, the feeling of my legs suddenly going limp like two raw strips of bacon in the wind. I only gasped in pain, far too traumatised to properly cry out, and I skidded across the floor before I came to a stop a metre or two afterwards. I was sobbing already, choked up on the sheer agony I was feeling in my back that was only increased comparing it to the numbness of my legs. I couldn't even look up and reach a hand out, or cry for help, so disabled I was by the gunshot. Lowell was right...I'd never seen that before.

I had no idea what to expect.

"What the..." I could hear Lowell say over the inferno, "NO!" he rushed to my side and moved my head so I was looking at his despairing own, "Look at me, Lilac! Stay with me! Katherine, what's the damage?"

Katherine too looked over my, turning me over to see my back. I could hear the fear in her voice, "Oh no...bullet wound directly in the spine. Lowell...she's-"

"GUYS!" Nikolai was shouting with panic, "THE LAVA! We must go, NOW!"

I didn't see the lava, nor Nikolai grab both me and the other two. All I saw was the sky as I was flung out of the Thermal Base and then the explosion from the last of the Thermal Base falling apart behind us. We all splashed into the freezing waters of the lake, which resulted in what remained of my body locking up even further. I could only see Lowell grab the unconscious Katherine and swim to the surface, then feel Nikolai grab the scuff of my shirt and try to do the same to me. I arched my head down, looking at the deep blue waters below us that contrasted with the beautiful orange flames licking above us.

And before I knew it...I was in the dark.


	5. Chapter 5: Bedside Manners

There was a soft sobbing that clashed with the thundering of the waterfall as Lilac herself released her pent up emotions. She sat in her wheelchair, crying into her gloved hands, while The Surgeon could only look on with a look of pity on his face. He stood up from where he was sitting on the ground, somewhere in front of Lilac's wheels, and pulled her into a hug while kneeling on the ground. She returned the hug in earnest, weeping further into his suited shoulder, and remained that way for a while.

"Uh...there there..." The Surgeon sighed, trying his very best to comfort the crying dragon, "You got it all off your chest, Lilly girl. That probably took a lot of willpower."

"I know..." Lilac sobbed, "And that's all there is to it. I got shot in the back of the spine, and I lost my legs, my tendrils...my will to live."

"No, no..." Surgeon sighed again, "Don't be like that. There's still a whole life ahead of you, don't waste it now. Tell you what, is there any more to this story?" Surgeon wiped the tears from Lilac's bloodshot eyes, "Come on, take your mind off it. What happened next?"

"I..." Lilac sniffled, holding back more tears, "I don't remember. I sorta trained myself to forget everything between falling into the water and being wheeled back to my treehouse in tears. I...don't remember anything in-between. I don't want to."

"Hmm..." Surgeon hummed to himself, before a light bulb popped into reality above his head, "Wait a second, I think I do!"

"What?"

"Yeah, I remember it was a Tuesday...or whatever passes for Tuesdays in the No-Zone. I collaborate with 'em, remember, and I had just dropped off my companion for her weekly spa treatment so that I could focus on what they had given me. I was, for lack of a better word, on my shift that day when I saw the other No-Zone members drag your soggy, unconscious bodies into Medical Ward 43."

===-===  
Next time I saw you guys was a few hours after that when I was getting my debriefing from...well, not my superiors, just the ones I had to listen to. A bit like Lowell and his little team, I wasn't part of the No-Zone proper, more the sort of person who helped them from time to time. Collaborators, I think we're called. I had just finished the task they had set me, basically tracking down someone who had escaped the No-Zone Prison and taking them back; alive, if possible.

It was about...9:00 PM in your time. I was in the main office of my not-superior, just about to finish the debriefing process. Nice chap, too. The No-Zone version of...Torque, actually. It was a bit strange seeing him in the red suit and green armour that was the No-Zone standard, helmet on the desk and pistol by his side and all.

"So..." Zorque was saying, tapping on the slideshow board next to me, "I've gotta say, I'm impressed. Ziliac was right about what you could do. You found Scourge in about a couple hours and caught him within the next two days."

"Well..." I said, shrugging, "It's not like it's hard to track a guy down. Not when he leaves his mark over everything he looks at. Man's sort of got an ego the size of a planet in that regard."

"AND you captured him with no collateral damage whatsoever," Zorque continued, "I'm impressed. Not since Amelia, Elder Masters rest her soul, have we had such an effective outside agent."

"Well, thanks," I said, scratching the back of my head, "So, uh, is that everything for today?"

"Yeah, you filled your quota for the day," Zorque said, switching the slideshow off, "Why ask? You in a rush or something?"

"Well..." I said, stuffing my hands into my jacket pockets, "I saw a few friends of mine being wheeled to Medical Ward 43. They looked...really out of it. I just want to go see if they're alright."

"Oh right, that so-called Trio," Zorque said, smiling, "Yeah, I saw 'em too. I think they just got back from a major outing on their part...and it looks like they're paying the price. If you wanna go see 'em, Medical Ward 43's on the...right, I think it is. Past Zonic's office and next to the bathroom block for this sector. You did good today, Surgeon. Dismissed."

I thanked him politely and walked out of his office, taking the directions that I had been given to find the ward. I passed the office of the highest ranking No-Zone cop, who strangely wasn't in at the time, and stopped at the bathroom block in the sector, specifically one that had no less than four main doors to choose from.

'Four? Isn't that a bit much, Surgeon?'

Not really, Lilac. It's how it works. You've got your Male and your Female toilets, then your Changed Gender ones. It's the multiverse, you know? A whole lot of different people out there...anyway, I looked around a bit for the door to the ward and found it after a small amount of searching. I rapped on the door in my usual tune, then slowly reached for the doorknob and creaked open the door. Inside the ward was...a rather small room, actually, with the three vigilantes each stretched out on the beds inside. Nothing seemed to show that they were hurt all that much, bar some bandages over wounds, as they still had their clothes on and were simply snoozing peacefully on top of the covers. Only Nikolai looked like he needed treatment, as the staff had taken off his trenchcoat and had seemingly smeared some sort of burn ointment into his skin. Parts of which were thankfully healing, but the rest had patches of grey and charred skin and fur, with an unpleasant smell filling the room.

I walked over to the doctor of this ward, a Doctor Ziona, "Hello. Did you, uh, hear me knocking?"

"I did, yes," Ziona smiled, "So, here to check on some friends of yours?"

"Yes," I nodded back, "Uh, how're they doing?"

"For the most part, fine," Ziona said dryly, flipping between the various sheets on her clipboard, "One of those Coalition of Planets guys from FP-084 called us from the orange wolf's...uh, Lowell's communication device. We sent some soldiers down there to see what was up, and we found these guys and one other unconscious at the scene. My knowledge of the FP timeline is...spotty, but it seems they got wounded during the process of blowing the base up. Lowell's got a bit of waterlogging and a few bruises from something, we're not quite sure. Katherine's also fine, through scans reveal she went unconscious the moment she hit the water, and she's waterlogged too. Nikolai was the worst out of the three; a number of burns all across his body, created by electric shocks. He seems to have tried to lessen the damage using ice powers to shield himself from the shocks but that's just damaged his skin even more."

'Oh god...'

Keep calm, Lilac. He's fine.

"We applied burn cream and some stitches for the split patches of skin, so he's in acceptable condition," Ziona continued, "We checked them out ages ago, so now all we need to do is get them up out of here."

"Thank the Lords," I sighed, "Hang on, though...you said there were four people. I only count three. So..who and where is the last guy?"

"Girl," Ziona corrected, "Sash Lilac of FP-084. She's in Intensive Care."

That couldn't be good, I figured. I thanked the doctor for her time and approached the group with earnest. I gave Lowell a little jab and waited for him to wake up. He did so shortly, batting at the sleep in his eyes, groaning as he got up into a sitting position. He looked at me like a lost child, "...Where am I?"

"Medical Ward 43," I said, "Wherever you've just come from, it left you all out of it."

"I..." Lowell grunted, "I remember we were running through this...Thermal Base. We were escorting a Lilac through it when...when..." he sounded really delirious, like he was forgetting something...horrible, "Where is she? Where're my friends?"

"They're fine," I said quickly, "Your friends are here, and they've gotten treatment for their wounds," I heard Lowell's sigh of relief and continued, "And your other friend's...in Intensive Care."

"Oh no..." Lowell shivered, "That's not good, is it? We better go see her. Let's go wake the others up."

We did so, with surprisingly little difficulty. Nikolai tagged along with us, despite his less than optimal condition. He sighed as he put on his trenchcoat; he assured us that this was nothing to him, and that he would heal, but he was worried that this Lilac...uh, you, wouldn't. We took a brisk walk down to Intensive Care; we all knew where it was in this sector, since every one of us had spent a good deal of time in there at least once. It was larger than the ward we had just left, but thankfully it was empty...except for one thing. I could see you on the bed, Lilac. Sitting upright but staring into the ground, legs hanging loosely in front of you. You looked so...out of it, with a look of sheer despair on your face.

'Did I? Again, I don't remember any of this...'

That's probably for the best. I saw Lowell's face fall into one of sadness, of guilt, "Oh no..."

"Are you okay, hubby?" Katherine asked, rubbing his back, "Should we..."

"Yes, we should..." Lowell said, "Surgeon, you keep watch out here. We probably don't want to introduce this concept to her this soon. You know, of multiple universes."

"Got it," I said, "I'll keep watch out here."

I did so, watching outside of the window as the three went in. The window itself was one of those ones on a hinge, so I opened the window to hear what you were saying.

'Wait...you were spying on us?'

Wh-What? No! N-No I wasn't! I...well, maybe I was a BIT. Sorry. I continued to look through the window to see who there was within it. There was you, of course, and the other three who were checking on you. And out of the corner of my eye was...someone. Another No-Zone member, as I could see the flash of red jumpsuit within his place in the shadows, but otherwise he was too out of focus for me to make out, and the others didn't seem to be interested in seeing who it was. Lowell approached you, a solemn look on his face.

"Lilac..." he whimpered, before trailing off, "I..."

"...Why?" I heard you ask, "Why did you let this happen? You saved me from being shocked...and now look at me."

"Y-Yes, but..." Lowell faltered, "I...are you okay?"

"No..." you whined, "My legs don't work."

"I wonder why..." the No-Zone member in the corner finally said. He walked out of the shadows, revealing himself. He was a cobalt hedgehog, one very similar to the countless amount of the things I had met over my life; tall, lanky, green eyes and with large quills. He too wore the red suit and green armour of the No-Zone, with the helmet by his side. Zonic was his name, and speed was...you know. He glared at Lowell with a scornful look on his face, "Well, look who we have here. If it isn't Professor Paralyze."

Lowell's face twisted into anger and he approached Zonic, "Push off, you. I did the best I could! How did I know that Brevon would just TAKE my gun?"

"Still has it, too," Zonic sighed, "How fitting - you tried to save this Lilac in a world we haven't covered yet, but subjected her to an even worse fate."

"Wh-why?" You asked, tears in your eyes, "What's happened to me?"

"Well, there's no nice way to explain this," Zonic replied coldly, "You're now a Paraplegic. That single bullet that Brevon fired hit you in a very specific place in your lower spine. Any damage there is enough to really mess with all the parts that actually make your body move - and most of those cases were from blunt force. Being slammed into a wall at high speeds, something like that. You actually got pierced directly in your spine, destroying your T10. And that's permanent damage."

"T10?" You asked.

"Part of the Thoracic part of the spinal column, if I recall correctly," Katherine mused, "Second lowest part of the spine, and one of the more vulnerable areas."

"Exactly," Zonic sighed heavily, "And that .40 S&W bullet completely shattered it. You have now lost all possible motor function in your lower abdomen, buttocks, legs and feet. Paralysed from the waist down. Hence...paraplegic."

You sat there for a few seconds, trying your very best to absorb this information. Your face twisted into one of multiple emotions, all of them miserable; sadness, fear, pain, anguish, dread, positively mortified. You sobbed a bit, seemingly trying to deny the facts that just been given to you, weeping softly as you clasped your head in your hands and began to hyperventilate with the sheer stress of the situation. You-

'YEAH OKAY DON'T RUB IT IN!'

Sorry. S-s-sorry, I-I...*ahem* I'll skip that bit, then.

"No..." you cried out, "No! NO! No I refuse, I...I...I still have my tendrils though...right?"

"I am afraid that's not the case," Zonic said, "They burned up in the fire. And even if you still had them, you're new lack of lower body strength would render them almost impossible to use in the same fashion anyway."

"Yeah, but they'll heal, right?" Lowell asked desperately.

"Not with the sheer extent of the damage done to her system. It's so great that it will probably never recover. Even the healing baths are out of the picture this time; reports say that this version of The Magister destroyed them long before the events of your timeline. Didn't want them falling into the wrong hands during their idiotic conflict."

"WHAT?!" you cried out in a mixture of fear and anger. You pointed at Lowell in anger, "You! You told me those things still existed! You told me I'd be safe!"

"I didn't know, I swear!" Lowell cried out, his voice faltering too, "I didn't know! Look, we can still fix this, alright? I can get Kath to use her blood magic to use heal everything, a-and she'll be right as rain! Kath, could you..."

Katherine nodded silently and approached you with some sort of red aura around her hands. But Zonic stepped out in front of her, growling and pistol held to her chest. She yelped and jumped backwards, while Lowell stepped in front of her to protect her, snarling. Zonic stood his ground nevertheless, "You will do NONE of the sort. You have tampered with this universe too much already, and your messing around has already horribly damaged an important factor of its timeline. This almost-paradox has at least allowed us to finally decide this timeline's destiny. From now on, FP-084 is under our protection. And if you try to change that, you WILL face action from us. Is that clear?"

"...Seriously?" Nikolai asked at last, "You are going to just let this Lilac suffer because it looks good on your records?"

"How the hell can you be so nonplussed about this?!" Lowell accused.

"I'm a No-Zone Cop," Zonic shrugged, "It's part of my job. Besides, your old-world counterparts caused so much trouble for us across the multiverse we're not even going to TRY taking any chances from you new-gens. You play by our rules, or you don't play at all."

"So..." you spoke up at last, having spent the whole conversation locked in haunted thoughts, "What does this mean for me? Does it mean my legs won't work?" you looked up at Zonic, your eyes full of tears, "...Will I ever walk again?"

Zonic looked down to you, "In all honesty, it would be a miracle if you could even crawl..." he then turned to the Trio, "You three, you have five minutes with CCTV. I want you out by half nine. And DON'T think of doing anything stupid...you've done enough of the sort," he sighed, then put on his helmet, walking past the group and out of the door. Having watched the entire ordeal crouched by the windowframe, I lept up as he passed by, tipping his helmet to me, "Good day, Surgeon."

"Good day, sir!" I replied, tipping my headband back. I waited until he had passed 'round the corner, then looked back at the others. Lowell was pacing around the room, mumbling to himself, while Nikolai and Katherine looked at each other uncomfortably. You just sat there, staring back into the floor, trembling where you could tremble, tears once again pouring from your eyes.

"...Is this it, then?" Lowell asked, frustrated, "Is this really how this is going to end?! This girl's just going to suffer, through MY fault, 'cause Znowflake doesn't want to mess up his archive? Bureaucratic piece of...ARGH!"

"This has not gone well for...any of us," Nikolai sighed, "I have a good deal of burn marks, but...I will heal. The memories of that experience will probably never leave, but compared to my time in Volgograd, they will be nothing. I will recover...but I am not sure the same can be said of the rest of us."

"Yeah, guess I'm the only one to survive without some sort of injury..." Katherine sighed in a miserable tone, "Yay for me...that...just sorta makes it worse, doesn't it? If I knew this was going to happen, I'd have taken the shot. At least I can heal myself from it."

"What do we do?" Lowell asked, dejected, "We can't heal her, they're watching us. What do we do?"

"...Nothing."

Lowell turned to look at you, since you had finally managed to speak up, "What do you mean nothing? Lilac, if there's any way I can help, name it. I WILL help."

"You really think you can help me?" you growled, looking up at Lowell with a miserable sneer on your face, "You helped enough, thanks. And now I'm para...parapleg...broken. I'm broken. You've left me off to a worse fate, and for what? So you can feel like you're helping? I think I'd rather take the torture. At least, from what I've heard from idle chatter with the other Lilacs in this madhouse, I would've forgotten it in two years. My life...is over."

"Lilac..." Lowell said, shaking, "That's not true. You still have this whole life ahead of you. You just need to adjust, is all. I mean I know a lot of Lilacs who're worse off, but you're still in good shape! I-"

"Leave."

"...What?"

"I said, LEAVE."

"Lilac, I'm sor-"

"GET! OUT!" you shrieked suddenly, causing Lowell to almost have a heart attack and jump backwards. Even Nikolai looked shocked, while Katherine jumped just as high as her husband. You calmed down, your voice barely holding out, "Leave me alone..."

Katherine silently nudged Lowell and he nodded in response, walking out the door with Nikolai in tow. The door locked behind them, leaving them and me alone in the corridor. I opened my mouth to speak, but quickly decided against it; anything I could say would probably just make thing worse. Even then, it was drowned out by the final, loud, pained sobbing from the other room. You had fully caved in, face buried in your hands. I could see the tears stain the bedsheets even from where I was, and I could only watch on as you fell on your side and shivered on the bed, alone in the room. Lowell had no reaction, having seemingly run out of energy at this point. He turned to look at me, looking angry and on the verge of crying himself, and all I could do was shrug.

"I'm sorry..." I said silently, "I'm so sorry."

"...Sure you are," he replied bitterly, dragging both his friends down the corridor and around the corner, vanishing from view. I only took one last look at your despairing form, then turned and walked down the other corridor, off to pick up my companion from her spa day.


	6. Chapter 6: The Return

"And...that's about it," The Surgeon shrugged, "I mean, after I saw Lowell vanish down the hallway and I went to pick up my companion, that's all I really thought of it...no offence. I went on few adventures with my companion; I chased the Cyber Controller across the universe and finally put it to rest. I ended the Scourge of Tatalon. I drove the Metallix back into the pits...and then the No-Zone calls me once again."

"Oh?" Lilac asked, sounding quite dejected, "Was it that...that monster, Zonic?"

"Not monster," The Surgeon shrugged again, "His rules are strict, but he's just doing his job. He doesn't exactly like it any more than anyone else, but it's not his rule to enforce. It's the leader of the No-Zone, whoever that be after more...recent events. It WAS Zonic that called me, though. Said that this version of you had gone AWOL and the Carol called someone in. That, of course, turned out to be me, and they pleaded with me that I go find you before you did something someone would regret."

"Like...throwing myself off a cliff to end my suffering?" Lilac sighed, "I'm...I'm sorry. I just thought it would stop me being a burden to everyone all the time. What's the point of a dragon without wings?"

"Lilac, now you really are just letting the grief talk for you..." The Surgeon pulled Lilac in for another hug, "You're never a burden. And, come to think of it, did Carol really abandon you when she found out?"

"Are you saying I just fabricated that so that I had a reason to..." Lilac trailed off, the realisation dawning on her like the Avalice sunrise. She looked down, shocked but not sad, "Great Dragon...I DID, didn't I? I guess I just wanted another reason to...well, do that. What'm I doing here?"

"Beats me," Surgeon shrugged once more, "Come on, let's get you home. I'm sure Carol and Milla are missing you dearly."

"Yeah..." Lilac sighed as The Surgeon began to wheel her out of the Valley, "I know they are."

The walk back home was long, but it was silent and peaceful. Lilac had calmed down at this point, smiling weakly at the tweeting birds and flowers lining the forest route home. It seemed, to The Surgeon at least, the outburst from this had removed all of the pent-up stress and rage in one quick event, to the point that she seemed a bit more...accepting. Of course it would still take a while to adjust, both knew that, but both were at least confident that it could not be properly done.

It seemed that Lord Brevon had pulled out his troops at this point. Exactly WHAT he was doing now was up for debate, something even The Surgeon didn't know, but if there was one thing that Lilac remembered it was that the No-Zone promised to fight in her stead if push came to shove. What this meant was that there were no robots to deal with, no obstacles to get past, just the a man (or in this case a close approximation of one) pushing a friend of his home. The quiet nature of the trip remained throughout all of it, only really ending when they finally got back to the treehouse. There, the respite was very quickly quashed by the sound of a scream rushing through the air;

"LILAC!"

It was Carol, her face a mess, sprinting towards Lilac as fast as she possibly could. The Surgeon yelled in surprise and did an overblown dodge roll to the side, allowing Carol to basically tackle Lilac to the ground and hug her senseless. Carol didn't even say anything for the first few seconds, instead just crying into Lilac' shoulder. Lilac, who long had no tears left to shed, simply smiled and patted Carol on the head, "Hey friendo. Nice to see you too."

"IMSORRYLILACIDIDNTKNOWIWASBEINGSUCHAMEANIEI-"

"C-Carol!" Lilac said quickly, causing Carol to jolt up quickly, "I'm fine now, I promise. A good man talked me out of it..."

Carol stared at The Surgeon, who was only now picking himself up from the ground and dusting himself off. He looked at Carol too, flashing a humble grin, "Well...I did the best I could. I mean this could be temporary, it might not remove all the sadness, I mean we've still got the root problem and-URK!"

Carol sighed, weary, as she wrapped her arms around The Surgeon, "Thank you..."

"Heh heh..." Surgeon grinned, "You're welcome. So, uh, should we get inside? Make some tea? I have a few things to ask..."

===-===  
Okay...we've got some tea. Lilac's crashed out in the bedroom, and Milla's still sobbing into her chest. So...you want my half of the story, do you?

'If possible. I mean I know Lilac's half of the story at this point. Might even relay it back to you, if you want.'

No thanks. I don't want to know exactly what kind of person would just let my best friend lose everything she had like that.

'Trust me, that guy doesn't want to know himself. SO, how did it start from your perspective?'

Okay then...here we go. It was...I think two days or so since I flipped out and left Lilac behind in the dust. I trust she talked to you about that.

'Yep. Don't worry, she said it was her fault.'

Well, it's my fault too. I mean it's not like I wasn't justified in what I was doing. Of course I was; it was a stupid plan, going after the biggest murderer in the galaxy because one guy told us to. Didn't even give us backup for this! I thought it was borderline suicidal, and I wanted no part of it...but I shouldn't have just abandoned Lilac like that. I was going to get help from the Red Scarves and then we'd go rescue her, but Spade wanted nothing to do with her. He just gave me enough for me and Milla to last a good six months on our own and we decided to just take what we had left and go home. So...I guess I DID just leave my friend to die. But it wasn't out of choice! ...At the time, anyway.

I didn't see Lilac for a while, those two days passed by pretty fast. Milla just sort of milled around finding doggy things to do, while I merely catnapped all day and practiced my thievery skills on passing tourists at night. Good way to keep the money up, you know? I didn't see Lilac until like, the morning of the third day. I was sleeping in my bed, same as usual, then suddenly Milla comes bounding into the bedroom and onto my bunk.

"Carol! Carol!" she was yelping, "Lilac's back!

"Wha..." I mumbled, half-asleep and making no effort to get up, "What?"

"LILAC'S BACK!" Milla screamed, shaking me like a rag doll, "Come on!"

With me fully awake, she bounded off my body and back out of the room. I merely lay there, staring at the ceiling; was Lilac really back? Had Milla just seen something? I decided to take the risk and see who it was. I got out of bed, hastily throwing on some clothes and shoes, and followed Milla down the ladder. Was this it? How would she be? Would she be okay? Humbled? ...Worse?

"Lilac!" I called out as some sorta purple thing emerged in view, "I knew you'd come crawling back to m-"

I stopped, slowly coming to a walking pace and then halting altogether. For there, in front of me, was Lilac in that accursed wheelchair. Left wheel squeaking as it made its way across the grass, pushed by some blue hedgehog in red armour and a green helmet, with Lilac's body positively broken and ravaged. Her torso was emblazoned with what seemed to be burn marks, her clothes dishevelled and torn in a few areas, her boots dirty, her gloves filthy and her tendrils wrapped in bandages and hanging loosely by the sides of her head with no signs of life. And there, plastered on her bruised face, was a look of utter defeat. Not even misery, it was like she was just so resigned to what had befallen her...whatever that was to me.

Tears streamed down my own face as the shock began to set in. I had imagined Lilac to end up a lot of things when she went to take on Brevon - burned, slashed, electrocuted, brainwashed like Dail, even beheaded. I wasn't expecting her to be so BROKEN. With Milla shocked in the background, I could only approach Lilac slowly, unsure of what to say. A few words tumbled messily out of my mouth like soup, "L-Lilac...I...what happened?"

Lilac didn't even speak, but she looked up at me with her despairing face, then looked back down at the ground. It was the guy who was pushing her that let go of the wheelchair and approached me. He took off his helmet, letting me get a closer look at this blue fur and green eyes, and he saluted, "Miss Carol Tea of Universe FP-084. I am under contractual obligations to taze you if you say the words 'I told you so' to your colleague."

"I...wasn't going to," I mumbled, "What happened to her?"

"Damage to the lower spine," the man said in his cold, gruff voice, "Completely taking out the nerves in your colleague's legs and feet. In...layman's terms, your colleague will never be able to walk again."

Something in me broke like a fine Shang-Mu china plate. I didn't know this would happen to Lilac. Like I said, I expected her to be damaged or dead. Not...this. Not this fate that seemed even worse than the alternative. It made me think back to that night we had shared together, arguing and bickering, all but two days ago. I wondered what I did wrong...

'Well, if it's any comfort, you didn't do anything wrong. In fact, you did exactly what the "canon" timeline said you would. Which...I suppose in this circumstance was a bit incorrect, but...'

But what? If I went against this "timeline", I would've been able to save Lilac?

'Well, it's not that easy. Multiverseial potential, you know? There's a good hundred universes where you do that, and a good hundred ones where you die or YOU become crippled. It's...something that takes a while to wrap your head 'round.'

And I'm not sure I want to do that just yet. I silently approached Lilac, trying to look merely shocked, reaching my hand out towards her own. She didn't reach for it, but she did look up at me like a small child who had just barfed on the floor. It was...pitiful.

"Lilac..." was all I could say. I turned up to look at the man, "Who are you, anyway?"

"Commander Zonic, of the No-Zone Police," the man said dryly, "Ever since The Event I've been tasked with keeping various universes stable, preventing paradoxes and, uh, interventions. It seemed that I was not fast enough to deal with this one. Oh well."

"Oh well?!" I called out, "That's all you have? OH WELL?!"

"It is not my duty to feel pity for those who end up like this," Zonic sighed, "It is my job to clean up the mess. Now I trust you will be able to care for this dragon yourself. If you need any assistance, however, feel free to communicate with us on this..." he reached into his pocket and dug out some sort of communication device, giving it to me, "Or wait until the third day of every month, where we will be performing check-ups. Physical Recovery Therapy will begin in about three weeks. Good day, citizen."

And with that, he just walked off. Like he didn't even care. My anger riled up even more at the bare-faced cheek of this man, and I snarled at the thought of him just...walking away. As he vanished into the bushes, I ensured that Lilac was comfortable and rushed after him, claws and fangs bared and scuffs in the grass as I ran on all fours to catch up. I pounced, throwing myself into the bushes as well, only to hit solid ground and tumble for a bit. I got to my feet, groaning and quickly looked around to see what was up. And he...wasn't there. I guess in hindsight I didn't hear him use that teleport...thing over the sound of me running across the ground. My anger boiled over and I kicked a tree in anger, before talking a minute to calm down and looking over to Lilac. She was staring back at the floor from her wheelchair. She just looked so miserable, and I wasn't sure what to do. This is probably going to sound a bit crazy, but...I'd never seen a wheelchair before.

'Really?'

None of us had. Wheelchairs weren't really a part of our world. If you lost your legs, they just got repaired with magic. But that wasn't really an option here. It was less I didn't know how it worked and more I didn't know how it WOULD work in a world where they didn't exist. I could only gingerly approach Lilac and wave, "H-Hey."

"..." Lilac didn't respond for a while, then looked up at me, frowny face and all, "...Hey."

"Are you..." I asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm good..." Lilac sighed, "Well, 'bout as good as you can be when you've lost feeling of half your body."

"Yeah but..." I tried to say, "We can make it work, can't we? Right?"

"Oh yeah, I can just live without my LEGS!" Lilac growled, "I can just tootle on down the road and buy another pair, no problem!"

"Lilac, I can't even begin to understand, I..." I sighed, knowing what had to be said, even if she and I didn't want to hear it, "...I'm sorry, Lilac. I'm sorry for leaving you behind like that."

"Not that it makes a lick of difference," Lilac crowed bitterly, "I still would have been beaten and broken...no thanks to you."

"Lilac I'm sorry!" I cried, gripping the handrests on the side of the wheelchair, "I will do everything I need to if it means making it up to you. We'll get through this, I promise. I..." my voice wavered as I went and grabbed Lilac into a hug, "I promise."

Not quite sure what happened after that. In fact, I remember that it was getting dark before anything else happened. I just knelt there, hugging the broken dragon, before I heard Milla bound back down the ladder. Seems she had hidden when I had lost my temper and could only watch me and Lilac hug it out. Finally, she had gathered up the courage to be back by my...our side. She whimpered as she spoke,

"Carol? I-Is Lilac gonna be okay?"

I didn't know how to answer that. Milla was still young, still pure. I could deal with Lilac's misfortune in time, as could Lilac herself...hopefully, but Milla just wouldn't. Not with the sheltered life we thought she had lived. I didn't know what to say. But Lilac wasn't going to be saying anything anytime soon, so...

I cleared my throat and picked my words carefully, "Uh...yeah, she's gonna be just fine! We just need a little...adjusting period, right Lilac?" Lilac looked up to me like a sulking kid, but nodded nonetheless, seemingly willing to go along with this if Milla wasn't affected. I silently thanked her for it and turned back to Milla, "So! What should we do? How 'bout a movie, yeah? Take our minds off it."

"That sounds great!" Milla said, "Let's just get in the treehouse and...oh."

Lilac looked up at the treehouse in despair, as did I. You see, our house was...well you're in it. You can see what it is; a treehouse. One in a rather high tree as well, as to avoid the rodents on the ground below and get a wonderful view during sunsets. But the only way up there was an old wooden ladder I had made myself, and even then it was a hard climb. You had to use your lower body strength most of the time just to keep on it, especially when it had been raining, which of course it had been the night before. Lilac continued to stare at the ladder, shivering as it seemed that this was the last thing she wanted to go through.

"OH COME OOOOON..." Lilac wept. Milla looked instantly sad at Lilac's outburst, looking at me with a worried stare.

"That's okay..." I said, coughing, "We'll find a way up there. Milla, could you fly up there with her?"

"I don't know..." Milla said, "I don't think I'll be strong enough to carry her up there by myself. What kid would?"

"Yeah, you're right," I hummed, "We don't do that sorta thing, we do our OWN thing. Alright then, there's only one way I can see..." I walked over to Lilac and, despite her protests, lifted her up out of her chair and into the air, hoisting her into my arms so that I had wrapped one around her torso. She wrapped her own arms around me, legs dangling in the breeze, clearly very unwilling for whatever I was planning.

"Carol, what're you doing?!" she called out, "This doesn't feel safe! I'm gonna fall!"

"No you won't," I said in a friendly tone, "I'm super strong, remember? I should be able to climb with one hand. Just watch me."

Milla watched on in awe as I walked over to the ladder and, with Lilac in tow, began to climb it singlehandedly, keeping a strong grip on Lilac all the while even while she squirmed and panicked. It actually wasn't that hard; Lilac wasn't small but she was thin, and she didn't exactly weigh a lot, what with all those diets she imposed upon herself. It didn't take long before I reached the top, but I was thoroughly exhausted by the effort. It was, after all, a looooooong ladder. Still, I reached the top and went inside the house. I set Lilac down on the couch with her head on the left handrest and her boots-wearing feet on the right one. I carefully removed the boots and set them by the door, panting and smiling at Lilac all the while. I gave her a thumbs up, which she awkwardly returned.

"Oof..." I sighed, "That was fun! Don't think I could do that every time, but still!" I trailed off, "...You still okay?"

"No," Lilac sighed too, "I can't even get into my own house anymore without help."

"Well, we can work on that, can't we?" I said, "I can build a lift, no problem. We've got a shower, I can still take you to your beds, I can cook meals, I...well, you know. I'm gonna look after you."

"Why?" Lilac asked, glaring at me from the sofa, "You called me weak. You called me insane. Suicidal, even. You said I wasn't your friend 'cause I wanted to be the hero. And yet...you're right. I am a lunatic, and I paid for it. Why do you want to be seen with someone like me?"

"Because my outburst was..." I fumbled, not sure what to say, "W-Well, I WAS right, but..."

"You were," Lilac sighed, "You had all the right to leave me in hindsight. I just wanna know why you've had this sudden change of heart. You could've just left me in their care."

"Not with the threat of getting shocked, I wasn't!" I called out, shuddering, "But Lilac, we've been through everything. It seems you've given up on this quest, and you've seen what you did wrong. That's fine! We're not equipped to deal with this. Leave it to those who are. With your new predicament, things have changed quite a bit..."

I sat down on the floor by Lilac's side, slowly running my hand across her leg; it felt numb to the touch, like it was a part of her that was no longer alive. She turned to look at me with tears in her eyes, "So...you're saying a new life?"

"No more Red Scarves. No more Spade. No more being the hero," I said, feeling unsure of my own conviction, "It's brought us too much risk in the past. From now on, we're on the straight and narrow. Heck, with all these robots around I could work as an exterminator. They seem to be POWERED by money."

"Well now you mention it..." Lilac pondered, "That DOES sound like a good idea..."

"That's more like the Lilly I used to know!" I grinned, tussling her hair, "Now, let's get this movie on, shall we?"

We watched the movie as soon as Milla returned, the wheelchair tied to the ladder's rungs so that it wouldn't roll away when we needed it tomorrow. Mad Speedz, I think. It was pretty good. It seemed to take Lilac's mind off of it just a little bit, but I could still see the sunken misery in her eyes. This was the start of something problematic, I was sure of it, and it made the money problem seem minor in comparison. I mean I guess I gotta thank the No-Zone for providing that kinda support, but Lilac was something they couldn't help. I got mad, I snapped at her, and now she was like this. And I hated myself for it.

The movie ended soon after, and we messed around for a while longer afterwards, playing card games while Milla sat with Lilac and tried to keep her cheery. Finally, it was time to get some rest. I picked Lilac up again, carrying her borderline-bridal style to the bedroom, placing her on the bottom bunk instead of the top bunk; she said she was fine with crawling to the bathroom herself. Not that it stopped me waking up to see her broken down sobbing halfway down the corridor, but...that's a story for another time, isn't it? Lilac's ordeals seemed to wear her out, and she was soon sound asleep with Milla just as soundly snoring in her doggy bed. I stroked Lilac's tear-stained cheek, whispering to her, before I clambered into bed myself.

"We'll get through this Lilac, legs or no legs. I promise."


	7. Chapter 7: Origins

We just sorta counted the days gone by after that. Some days were alright, with us just sitting around doing whatever we could find to do to keep that whole "disabled" thing out of mind, if not out of sight. And it worked...for the most part. But the world just wasn't kind to Lilac. The idea of someone being unable to move their legs was considered hard to process. Lilly became a novelty more than anything, her former life as a thief and a con regardless.

'Hmm. I guess it's because they relied on those healing baths so much. I checked your medical records. All three kingdoms, too. For all your robots and magic, your actual technology levels are borderline primitive in comparison. Not to mention overly inconsistent.'

Don't have to tell me twice. Trucks, planes and neon lightning...but swords and spears. I never understood it.

'Well that's what happens when your main source of healing is taken away and you relied on it a tad too much.'

Oh trust me, I know that. Over the week, while Milla looked after Lilac, I checked with all possible doctors and royal medical assistants and...ARGH! Not a single one of 'em could heal a paper cut without that healing pool, much less restore Lilac's legs to full functioning order! It just made me so...so mad...

'Uh, we'll get to that when we, uh, get to that. How 'bout the first "crack", as it were. At what point did the world make it clear Avalice wasn't going to play dice?'

The day after, oddly enough. I learned through one of the many pamphlets that those No-Zone Bozos had attached to the back of Lilac's wheelchair that they were going off to take down Brevon in Lilac's absence. So, you and Lilac tell me that they don't like anyone outside the timeline messing with the timeline...but they do it with impunity.

'Well, once the proper paperwork has been filled out and filed.'

Anyway, that at least meant two main things; that Brevon's forces wouldn't be coming after us and that Shang Mu was open again. Well, so was Shang Tu but there was NO way we'd be allowed back there after the scene we made. With what the Red Scarves had supplied, we had time to kill - and money to do things with. So I decided, while brushing my teeth in the morning afterwards, that we could visit something from the one place we were allowed to go. Dragon Castle of Pangu Lagoon, said to be on land between Shang Mu and Shang Tu, but still very much Shang Mu territory so Neera couldn't arrest us. I decided to wake Lilac up, lightly shaking her awake.

"Hey, Lill," I chimed, "Up and at 'em!"

Lilac stared at me, eyes drooped and obviously still sleepy, "Heh. I thought you were the sleepyhead 'round here."

"Well, looks like I've got a new rival," I joke, still shaking her slightly, "Want some breakfast? We've got a long day ahead of us."

"Sure. Let me just..." Lilac said, getting up in bed and trying to swing her legs off the bed and onto the floor. Nothing happened, of course, and Lilac looked a bit dejected, "Oh."

"A-Allow me," I said gingerly, once again picking Lilac up and carrying her to the table, her head nested and nuzzling against my chest as I walked to the main room. Milla was already there, doing the doggy things that Milla tended to do, before she noticed me and jumped onto a chair by the table, looking curiously at a glass of orange juice, "Oh! Good morning!"

"Morning, Milla," I replied.

"Morning," Lilac said too, her voice still sleepy and somewhat hindered as I put her down on a chair by the dinner table. I quickly went off to make some bacon and eggs, with the frying sounds of the bacon doing little to drown out the conversation that Lilac and Milla had, "So, Milla...what happened when Carol left me behind?"

I felt a twinge of guilt from this, continuing the fry the eggs as Milla replied, "Uh...I can't remember. I think we tried to find that panda guy and see if he could help us. But he was a real meanie and threw us out!"

"Sounds like Spade, alright," Lilac sighed, "Still, at least you tried to get some help for me. Nice to know."

"Yeah..." Milla sighed as I finished with the bacon, "At least he gave us money; a 'buttload of cash', as Carol said. I don't know why, though. Why did he just give us money, Lilac?"

"Pity funds?" Lilac asked, dejectedly, "I don't know, kiddo. I'd rather never see that freak again. He wants to kill and steal, try to make his name known, fine. See how he likes being stuck in a wheeled chair for the rest of his miserable life."

"Don't be like that, Lilac..." Milla whined, "That's not like you."

"None of us are like us," Lilac crowed bitterly, "From what I've seen, none of this is."

"Breakfast!" I said hastily, bringing three plates of bacon and eggs to the table. Milla's face lit up like a bonfire, while Lilac's own mood seemed to improve quite a bit. We all dined into our eggs, albeit in silence, and it took me until I was halfway through my own food to speak, "So, uh...I've got an idea for what we can do today?"

"Really?" Lilac asked, "Like what?"

"Well, you know Dragon Castle?" I asked, "That place near Shang Mu that they say is like, fulla history and treasure. Stuff about how the dragons and the Kingdom Stone came to be."

"And?"

"I thought we could check it out. Today," I said, finishing my mouthful of bacon, "The next tour is at...1, I think, so if we leave by 11, we should get there in time. Gives us about two hours to get ready. Sound like something you'll be interested in?"

"Well..." Lilac sighed happily, finishing her breakfast altogether, "Might take my mind off things. Might even learn what I am, exactly. I'll get ready..." she tried to get up out of her chair, but stared down instead, "Oh yeah, Uh...how exactly am I going to dress myself like this?"

"What does it matter?" I asked, "We all wear the same clothes anyway."

"Yeah, but I've been wearing this set since we ran from Neera. It's been through rain, slag, magma, sweat, seawater and debilitating mental trauma."

"...That has a smell?"

"Oh yes," Milla piped up, "It smells of oranges."

"Huh," I said, "Well, I'll help dress you, Lilac. It shouldn't take long, after all."

"What?" Lilac asked, being a tad nervous, "Carol, I don't really need to-"

"I know, I know..." I said, placing my hands behind my head, "But, what kind of friend would I be if I DIDN'T help, you know?"

"I guess that's true..." Lilac sighed, "Alright. This is gonna be awkward, though."

"Yeah, but...uh..." I cleared my throat, picking up Lilac in my arms and turning to Milla, "So, uh Milla. The bus is gonna come along at the Dragon Valley Station in about...an hour, I think. Just let me dress Lilly and get ready yourself. Then, we're gonna get going. Okay?"

"Okay!" Milla said happily, jumping off from her chair and bounding into the bathroom to brush her teeth. I silently stared at Lilac, who silently stared at me. She had that look on her face again, that defeated look that I saw on her yesterday as well. She looked like she was going to cry again, squirming in my arms. It was clear she hated this predicament, but couldn't do a thing about it. It caused my own levels of guilt to skyrocket, and I sighed as I pulled Lilac into a little hug.

"I'm so sorry, Lilly..." I whispered, "I'm gonna make up for it. Just watch me..." I released her from the hug, "Come on, let's get you dressed."

'So, uh, anything else to report on that bit?'

Not really. I mean there WERE a few more things to cover, but in a bit less detail, you know? They just happened so fast. I mean I got to help Lilac undress and redress. She, uh...it was just a little awkward, but I got it done. She looked really uncomfortable too, blushing like one of Brevon's traffic light robots, but she seemed thankful when it was done. Still the same clothes, of course, just now it was a fresh pair of 'em. When Milla was done, we were soon on our way. It was alright, actually; we just walked through the forest, detailing the flowers and even letting Milla make a little crown of 'em and sticking it on Lilac's head.

'Certainly sounds like a nice walk. Must admit, though, I always got that you Carols were...hotheaded. Not exactly one for emotions.'

Well...Lilac ain't like her "original" counterpart either, is she?

'Good point.'

Besides, I had someone to take care of now. I couldn't really hold onto what I used to be when I now had this responsibility. And nowhere did I remind myself more of that than when when we finally got to the bus stop and got on that bus.

'Did people...uh, stare at you?'

A lot. As I paid for the tickets and set Lilac down at the back of the bus, I couldn't just ignore all the people that were too going to see the castle, staring at us. Some stared in confusion, some stared in wonder, some even had idiotic smiles on their faces, like they found someone actually crippled...novel. I managed to keep myself under control - there was no point getting angry about any of this, not yet. It was early days at the time, after all, reacting was probably what they wanted to see. I could see Lilac being affected by it, looking down at the floor in shame, and I did that too. Only Milla kept her head upright, looking around at those who kept staring; most of them had turned around again, but a few kept staring on, and it made me boil under my skin. The rest of the bus ride was thankfully quite quiet, with me and Lilac sitting side by side, awkwardly staring at each other at times before staring back at the blue floor. Only Milla looked out of the window, happily panting like...well, a dog as she merrily watched the valley vanish behind a number of trees and eventually transitioning to the lavender meadows where we met up with General Gong only a few days ago.

Finally, the shadow of the castle came looming into view through the steadily appearing rain. Dragon Castle, a castle built on the original spot that the first Great Dragon came down to honour our ancestors, who went about building the castle and then the rest of the three kingdoms in their honour. That's...a very big welcoming gift. Normally we just get some champagne and some chocolates. It was...odd, really. It kinda showed what kind of past we've had.

'Oh yeah, I remember this. Went to see it myself. Like, it's a sort of...uh, medieval castle in a world of more...Chinese-y type of world, said to be the first resting place of the Kingdom Stone before too many people tried to steal it. It's quite hard to comprehend. Was it perhaps that your world was more Western-styled before the Great Dragon came along and influenced the general trends from there on out?'

I 'unno. You're the one with the time machine. Can't you see it?

'I suppose I could...a-anyway, what happened at this castle?'

Uh, I'm not too sure. I guess I didn't care that much until Lilac's, uh...condition. But now, seeing as we wouldn't understand her heritage the way we were apparently supposed to, perhaps Lilac would be able to understand what she was supposed to be. It took a while to get off the bus and into the castle, owing mainly to Lilac's wheelchair and the...well, less than wheelchair-suitable parts of the paths. A lot of dips and hills, you know? I really didn't get it, to be honest; it was a simple concept, a chair on two big wheels. I'm fairly sure Mayor Zao's own throne was that sorta thing! So...why was something so simple so...alien? Though, as you said, a planet that relies on throwing people in pools and lakes as their main form of medical aid can't exactly be expected to run with the more basic ideas.

Still, I struggled and strained and managed to get Lilac to the castle interior. Milla was happily bounding between me and Lilac, checking on her to see if she was okay, which she was, for the most part. The inside of the castle seemed to cheer her up a bit, with a small amount of awe spread across her face; it was pretty cool, being this massive opening room that opened to the ceiling and had all these spikes and carved dragons jutting out of every angle. It was a large, long corridor with a red carpet rolled out beneath us that covered the cold slab stone floor. To either side were stained glass windows that seemed to depict these really cool fights between different dragons and some of the older members of this planet, with swords and spears and flames going wooooosh!

'Huh. You enjoyed the sight of it, then.'

You kidding? It was awesome! And Lilac seemed to agree. We walked down the corridor until we reached the end of it, from which it split into three directions; left and right were two massive doors, the middle ran up a large staircase to the upper areas of the castle. There, we found ourselves in a large crowd of tourists, some looking around, some taking pictures and a good amount of them just talking to each other in excitement for what they were about to see. In front of us was our tour guide for this trip, being a...skunk, I THINK, in a black suit with red shirt and black tie. Kinda looked out of place as far as I was concerned, but eh, guess you gotta dress smart for such an old place.

He checked his watch and then cleared his throat, speaking loudly but politely, "AHEM! Gentlemen, ladies, if I could have your attention..." the chatter stopped afterwards, and everyone turned to look at him, myself and Lilac included, "Thank you. Now, welcome to the Dragon Castle tour. I will be your tour guide, Marlow, and I entrust that this tour will be engrossing, informative and fun. Any, uh, questions before I begin the tour?"

I wanted to ask something. I knew I answer already, but I knew it had to be asked. But I didn't want to, 'cause I knew Lilac would react...poorly. I sighed and began to raise my hand, but the ever innocent Milla had already beat me to it, "Ooh, ooh! Mr Tour Man? Is this place suitable for, uh...uh, wheelchairs?"

Marlow tilted his head to the side, "Wheelchairs?"

I sighed, seeing as Milla had basically forced me to speak now, "Uh, basically my friend doesn't have control of her legs. It's...complicated. So, uh, I guess what we're asking is, do you have any ramps for the stairs, or..."

"Hmm..." Marlow mused, then shrugged, "Sorry, missy. Never heard of a wheelchair, at least not that in that capacity. Must be a new thing...or something that's just so rare in this world that there's not much for it. But, uh, no I'm afraid we don't."

"Oh. Okay..." Lilac sighed, "Well...how'm I going to get around the castle? This place is legendary for being more incredibly tall and fulla staircases," she sighed, "I guess you could just...leave me here."

"No, Lilac," I said, looking her in the eyes, "I won't leave you behind...again. Just let me carry you again."

"But..." Lilac said, "I might fall off..."

"I could do it!" Milla said proudly, wagging her tail, "I should be strong enough to carry you while walking! Flying's a different matter, but..."

"Well..." Lilac sighed, "Milla, that's very nice of you, but you don't have t-aah!"

Milla had cheerfully ignored Lilac and hoisted her out of her chair, holding her at arm's length like she did with her magic alchemy blocks. Lilac was confused at the turn of events, looking confused as she was held aloft by a tiny dog. Whatever Milla did to get those powers of her's, it was certainly worth it.

"This is...odd," Lilac said, "You sure you're okay with this? W-Won't you get tired?"

"Of course I'm okay with it!" Milla chirped, "Those death blocks aren't light, you know."

"I mean, look at the irony," I chuckled, "Normally it's the child sitting on the adult's shoulders!"

"Well, if that's solved the problem," Marlow chuckled along, "Then we can get started with the tour! Follow me, please."

He began to walk up the starts, digging a microphone out of his pocket, presumably to better talk with those at the back of the group. With Milla happily carrying the befuddled Lilac up the stairs, I folded the wheelchair and slung it around my back like a backpack, then began to follow.

The castle was, to put it one way, AWESOME. Each room looked better than the last, being smaller or wider or taller or grander, with red carpets and all sorts of very old, very odd furniture and technology strewn around the place. I guess that, having grown up in a world where everywhere looked the same, it was nice to get some sorta different views, even if it was something that felt outdated. The tour itself wasn't exactly anything new, it was often just Marlow talking about the history of the room and what kind of stuff was in it. I think Lilac and Milla were listening to him go on about it all, but I certainly wasn't. I was looking at the style of the chairs and all the other stuff how it curved and spiraled where all our stuff was more angular and traditional. This stuff felt like it all came from another world.

'Huh. Didn't exactly know you enjoyed some of the finer sights of life.'

Well...like I said, everyone likes a change of scenery every now and again. The tour continued, with us going from location to location and learning of their history; from main hall to the bedrooms, then to the dining areas, the kitchen, the gardens, even the bathrooms. From wide rooms with beds as high up as Mayor Zao's airship, to dining areas with tables as long as a bus, to gardens stuffed with hedge mazes and lots of...uh, shrubs. Lots of shrubs.

Finally, we got to near the end of the tour. It had been a really cool tour at that point, having seen everything that had existed before the Great Dragon and the direction we took afterwards. I remember my granddaddy said he liked the old style better, now I..sorta got what he was talking about. At least stuff we use these days kind of works, though. Even if it's all fuelled by that stupid Kingdom Stone in the process. That thing's been nothing but trouble ever since we found it. Though I do wonder how much it'd sell for across the multiverse...

'No no. D-Don't do that.'

Sorry. Anyway, the final room was right at the very top of the castle, in what they called the Origin Room. Oooh. It was at the top of the middle tower, like a wizard's room, with a massive glass orb on a pedestal in the centre of the room. I looked closer, and it seemed to be a sorta...fake Kingdom Stone. Not unlike the fake emerald placed back at the Relic Temple, come to think of it, and it sorta served the same purpose; that is, to defer thieves like...well, like me. Around it was a lot of old, magical stuff, surrounded by blue tapestry and a few desks with papers and ink pots strewn about. But most amazingly of all, there was a massive...rag on the far side of the wall.

'Rag? You mean The Origin Tapestry?'

That's the one, yeah! It was huge, like it covered the entire wall, and it was covered in pictures and illegible writing of some kind. Sadly a lot of it was REALLY faded and hard to make out, but the important stuff remained...thank the Great Dragon. We all huddled into the final room, Marlow standing before us from in front of the fake Kingdom Stone. Milla had tired herself out from all of this and, seeing as we were in the front of the group, helped me place Lilac back in the wheelchair for the time being. The wheelchair creaked as Lilac got comfy again, and we turned our attention to Marlow.

"Okay, people!" Marlow said, "This is the end of the tour, the final room. This is what we call the Origin Room. It was where the final meeting with the Great Dragon took place, many years ago. The three kingdoms we now reside in - Shang Tu, Shang Mu and Shuigang, were in their infancy, many days away from the massive empires they are today. But they existed nevertheless, and the ancestors to our current leaders were to have one final talk with this dragon creature. The Great Dragon looked down upon the three, speaking in an otherworldly voice;"

''SO...YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE HAVE BUILT YOUR KINGDOMS IN HONOUR OF ME. IMPRESSIVE, BUT FOOLISH. FOR DISTANT EMPIRES WILL SPARK DISTINCT CONFLICT. WAR IS COMING. BETWEEN YOU, ON THE GROUNDS, AND BETWEEN YOUR FUTURE GENERATIONS AMONG THE STARS. I FEAR I MAY HAVE GIVEN YOU TOO MUCH POWER. I CANNOT WATCH OVER YOU, FOR I HAVE DUTIES ELSEWHERE. HOWEVER...I HAVE ANOTHER IDEA. I WILL LEAVE BEHIND A POWER SOURCE, OF SORTS. A STONE TO UNITE THE THREE KINGDOMS IN ITS USE. FOR IF ANY ONE OF YOU ATTEMPT TO USE IT ALL FOR YOURSELF, SHOULD YOU GO TO WAR FOR THE SAKE OF ITS POWER...I WILL KNOW. AND I WILL MAKE IT KNOWN THAT MY TRUST WAS WASTED UPON YOU.''

"...And with that, there was a flash and a roar that blinded and deafened the three founders. As they regained their senses, they found that the dragon had vanished. In its place was this..." Marlow gestured towards the fake Kingdom Stone, "The Stone to unite the Kingdoms. The Kingdom Stone. Not this exact one, of course. This is just a mock-up for demonstration and decoration purposes. No, the real one has been hidden deep within the earth. We really don't want to, uh, incur the dragon's wrath."

Too late for that, I thought. I knew where the thing was - in the clutches of that monster Brevon - but I knew no-one would believe me if I told them. Now the whole world was geared for war. Still, at least I knew it's fate was all in safe hands...right? ...Surgeon?

'I'm afraid I can't exactly divulge that information. Company Rules, as it were.'

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where it all started..." Marlow finished, "The world as we know it formed right here, at that time. And we've only been getting better from there. That will be the end of the tour, you are allowed a few minutes to look around this room, then please take the stairs behind me to transverse back down the tower and into the Gift Shop and Cafe. And uh..." he looked down at Lilac, "There's also a wooden slide down to the bottom floor for you, missy."

"Oh. That helps," Lilac said, smiling.

"You're welcome," Marlow smiled, "Right then, I'll give you guys and gals a few minutes to check out the room, please do not touch any of the paper or the fake stone, and there is a small passageway leading to a small outside balcony if you require some fresh air. I have been Marlow, thank you for your time."

He flashed one final smile and exited the room via the brown door, with a heavy clomping sound getting softer an quieter as he walked down the heavy stone steps. Everyone broke up from the main crowd and began to look over the room, ignoring Marlow entirely and poking at or picking up the papers on the desk. I sighed, pushing Lilac past the fake stone and to the edge of the room, since we both knew what we wanted to see; the Origin Tapestry. It stretched to either side of the room, and all but a few of the pictures were illegible. Thankfully, those that still lived on were the ones we wanted to see.

"Well...this is it," Lilac said, looking up at the Tapestry, "This is what the Great Dragon did to help our planet."

"Well...what did he actually do?" Milla asked innocently. I must admit, I didn't really know. I STILL don't know, to an extent. I shrugged and decided we look at what was legible. First picture was this...I dunno, it was the LEAST faded but it still kinda hard to make out. It seemed to be this massive sausage with fins and teeth, circling over the land - below it were a number of other dragons coming out to meet others at the very bottom of the image. And below even THAT seemed to be some text in an extremely old language. I certainly couldn't make any of it out, and I was fairly sure Lilac couldn't either. Milla looked confused, but said something anyway, "The Dragon's Children? What does it mean by that?"

Both me and Lilac stopped in our tracks, confused. I turned to Milla, "How did you know what that said?"

"I saw a lot of it when I was living underneath the temples," Milla explained, "I guess I picked up some of it when these guys came along and tried to translate it."

"Well that'll come in handy," Lilac sighed, "So...what? Did the Great Dragon leave his own people on Planet Avalice?"

"Seems to be," I said, having no idea what was going on. I pointed to the second picture, which seemed to be a sorta two-for-one sorta thing - the first bit showed an average Avalician and one of these dragon people interacting with each other, holding hands and about to lean in for a kiss or something. The second half showed the two holding a bundle with this lovey-dovey look on their faces. In the bundle? Some sorta...well, it looked like Lilac, "What's this read, then?"

"The First Half-Dragon is Born..." Milla read, looking at it with head tilted, before turning to look at Lilac with a massive smile on her face, "Look at that, Lilac! You're descended from the Great Dragon itself!"

"Am I?" Lilac asked incredulously, "I...the rumours about my kind were true, then! This is amazing! My people might still be out there, then! I can't wait to meet them!"

"Well, let's keep reading, you know?" I said quickly, looking at the Tapestry. There was one final picture, one of the planet's citizens...standing over the bodies of the dragon people, with a lot of the hybrids running in fear, "Uh...that's not a good sign..."

"The People of Avalice driving the The Dragon's Children into Nothingness..." Milla read a final time, "The Children of this Uneasy Partnership were considered nothing but savages by those who chose not to befriend the Dragon's Children. They who wanted the Stone of the Kingdoms to themselves. Untrusting of the Dragon's Children and their creations, they destroyed them and their offspring. Only a few survived the frenzy, and but one Water Dragon will rise from their ashes and help the world in a time of...oh..."

Milla stopped cold, fear and sadness splayed across her face, and something dropped like a brick in my stomach too. We both knew what this meant, and who it was referring to. It was Lilac, wasn't it? This one remaining Water Dragon, destined to save the world was...Lilac. I turned to look at her, to see how she reacted. She looked hollow again, like it had hit her all with the force of a truck. She shivered, shattered, her hands loosely gripping the handbars of the wheelchair.

"Lilac?" I asked gingerly, "Are you okay?"

"...Get me outside," Lilac said quietly, "I want fresh air."

"Okay..." I gulped, "Milla, could you stay here?" Milla nodded, bounding off to stare at the Kingdom Stone or...something, I can't even remember. I quietly sighed as I wheeled Lilac out towards the balcony, hearing the left wheel squeak every so slightly as we exited the room and onto the balcony. I was kinda scared what Lilac would do, but thankfully the balcony walls had been extended with a wire fence so people couldn't climb over it, though it sorta block the otherwise pretty cool view of the hills surrounding the castle. I sat Lilac at one end of the balcony, far from the others, and walked to the front of her, "Alright. I-"

That's about all I got out before Lilac burst out into screaming sobs. She wailed like a little kid, bawling and crying into her hands all the while. I jumped at how sudden this outburst was, and in hindsight I'm kinda glad there was enough of a commotion in the other room that no-one heard us. I could only look on, my own resolve being tested to its very limit, as I watched my best friend break down in front of me. And that was about all I could for a while, before Lilac finally calmed down a few minutes later...well, enough to the point she could actually speak without lapsing into more bawling.

"Is this a joke?!" Lilac asked, her tone a mix between sadness and anger, "Is this some kinda, some kinda cosmic multiversial joke?! The last Water Dragon, decided by the Great Dragon itself to save the planet from people like Brevon as part of her destiny...and I end up like THIS?!" Lilac gestured towards her static lower body, "How'm I supposed to fulfil this prophecy like THIS?! What, am I supposed to roll the bad guys to death?"

"Lilac, I..." I said, "I think you're overreacting a bit."

"Better go tell the Great Dragon I'm sorry I can't fulfill his prophecy," Lilac continued, still screaming bitterly at no-one, "The Dragon Race is doomed, 'cause my legs don't work!"

"Lilac," I tried again, "It might not be you they mention in that tapestry. Snap out of it!"

"IT'S NOT FUCKING FAIR!"

"LILAC!" I screamed at last, losing my cool and clamping my hand over her mouth. I cleared my thoughts and tried to talk again, trying my hardest to keep my own voice stable, "Lilac, I...look, that might not be you, alright? We're not in that hero stuff anymore. We...we're better than this...I swear..." Lilac said nothing, merely shutting her eyes and crying a little bit more. I finally couldn't hold it in and let the tears flow too, hugging her tightly and quietly whispering into her ear, "Lilac...I'm so sorry. I can't even begin to understand what this must be like for you. No-one can. And no-one probably will. But I'll try, alright? We won't let stuff like this get us down. We'll keep going, we'll find a way to get your legs back. And if we can't, I'll do my best to make up for it. Understand?"

"...R-" Lilac hiccuped, wiping whatever tears were left from her eyes, "Really?"

"Really," I said, arching back, "Just the three of us, against the world. As...I guess it was meant to be. Come on, wanna check out the gift shop? I'll get you something nice, my treat."

Lilac mulled it over for a while, then looked up at me and nodded, smiling. It was a broken, fake smile, I knew it even then, but after this embarrassing outburst of emotions, it was better than nothing at all. I sighed, wiping the tears from my own eyes so Milla wouldn't notice, and I began to wheel her back into the tower room.


	8. Chapter 8: This War of Mine

"Ahh, now THIS one..." Lilac chirped, taking the object off of her dresser table, "This was the third thing Carol got me in that deal. It's a little model of the castle itself, see?"

The Surgeon studied the object Lilac held in her hands with impunity. It was a snowglobe with a copy of the castle inside of it, with a lovely brass base and reinforced but still clear as crystal glass. The snow had been shaken up owing to Lilac's movements, covering the castle model with the fake snow and creating a rather interesting scene. The Surgeon mused, "Hmm...very exquisite. It's quite well-made for a little gift shop item."

"That's what I thought, too," Carol mused alongside him, sitting by Lilac's side with her hands resting around Lilac's body and in her lap, "I guess they make so much money from the people visiting the castle they don't need to skimp on the rest of it."

"Well that's rare," Surgeon said bluntly.

"I know!" Milla said happily, huggling with a soft toy of the Great Dragon, "The stuff we got was great! I love this thing! Carol said she'd modify this further so it looks like Lilac! Isn't that nice of her?"

"It certainly is," The Surgeon chuckled, "Well, nice to know the day ended on a positive note, I suppose."

"Yeah," Carol sighed, "Trust me, it made a change. Now, do you want to keep going, or..."

"I'd say keep going," The Surgeon said, "I mean, I kind of want to see what lead to...well, that. Make sure it never happens again."

"Oh trust me," Lilac sighed, "I'd never do that again even if I wanted to."

"Please don't, Lilac..." Milla whined, curling up in Lilac's lap, "We thought you'd never come back..."

"I know..." Lilac sighed again, giving the little puppy dog a hug, "I'm sorry. So. What do we talk about now?"

"Hmm..." The Surgeon scratched the side of his head, "Oh, I know! Did the No-Zone visit you anytime during the week? I know they like to keep monthly checkups on those under its, uh...command."

"Don't remind me," Carol grumbled, "Well, I dunno, actually. I mean they DID visit and they took Lilac away for the day, but I don't even know why."

"That was me," Lilac shrugged, "The events at the castle didn't exactly help me cope with the stress of what had occurred a few days ago. Kinda got the impression we'd need more than just that. So I decided to take Carol's transceiver the next morning and ask if they could do anything to help. And...well, they did."

===-===  
Now obviously, they didn't want to just start Physical Training right away. Trying to walk would be hard when...well, your spine is splintered. And their bosses said that I wasn't showing the right sort of "requested symptoms" to be given some time with a psychiatrist.

S: 'That and the fact they don't exactly HAVE a psychiatrist on duty there most of the time. Not since The Event, anyway. We're trying to get new staff in, but it's taking a while.'

C: 'You know, you keep mentioning this event, Surgeon. What exactly does it entail?'

S: 'That's for another day, Miss Tea. Trust me, it wouldn't exactly make sense if I DID tell you.'

Anyway, with those two out of the question, there wasn't exactly a lot they could do for me. But they could think of ONE other thing. I mean, this is the Multiverse, isn't it? A million of me and so on. They said that, as well as give me some alone time in one of their "Calming Zones", they'd also give me another Lilac to talk to. Another Lilac who went through a very similar ordeal to what I went through, but took it a lot better than I did.

C: '...That doesn't sound like it'd help a lot. Hey, Lilac, here's another you who DOESN'T want to hurt herself to make you feel better!'

...Thanks, Carol.

C: 'Sorry. Say, what ARE Calming Zones?'

S: 'Sort of a pocket universe but...not. Basically, if they find a place in a world that's remote or not often visited, and it shows it calms those within it, they open up a portal to that specific location and use it to calm those with depression or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Trust me, they've been quite helpful. SO, where did you go?'

Uh...AR-033.

S: 'Ooh, the Waterfall Jungle Cave! I've been there myself, actually. It's quite nice, isn't it?'

It was, actually. I remember that it was quite a sight when I was first wheeled there by a member of this No-Zone. It was like...well, the portal linked to a deep cave in the middle of a jungle, with a massive opening in the cave wall to look at the lush green scenery outside. The cave itself was quite pretty, actually, the rock comprising it being a sort of onyx-y black, though with a wooden floor to make it even and stable, while behind us the rest of the case resided, hidden by a combination of both the inky blackness and a wire fence. The hole in the front of the cave was raised at the bottom, so the hole was in the middle of the wall - and probably handmade.

The view outside was...wonderful, I must say. It stretched far into the distance, with no end to it in sight. All around were massive trees that stretched into sky so high I couldn't see the tops, with the cliff the cave was a part of in sight to the left of us. To the right, a massive waterfall came crashing down from the nearby rocky ledge to a pool that snaked through the middle of the view, with shrubbery and greenery hanging around on every area it could. Birds were chirping, the rushing water was softened into melody by the hollow cave and a faint rain was pouring down and spattering on the leaves, leaving a sort of scene that almost instantly came to soothe my frazzled nerves.

"Wow..." I gasped at the time, "It's beautiful..."

"Yeah, it's pretty wonderful, isn't it?" the No-Zone guard said, "Zonic himself helped to scout this place out, you know. Just found it in the middle of this world's major jungle. So remote even those who live here will never find it. And for good reason, I mean we don't exactly want the people of THIS world to come here and work on this lovely scenery."

"Why?" I asked, not even looking up at him.

"Two Words; Human Settlements. Urgh..." The No-Zoner shuddered, "So, would you like me to give you a few minutes alone?"

"Yes please," I replied quietly.

"Well then," The No-Zoner said happily, "Well, uh, there's cameras set up and a button over there to call someone over if you need anything - food, drinks, blankets, even some company, anything. And there's an invisible wall over the hole so don't worry, you won't fall out or lose anything."

I smiled weakly at their generosity, "Thank you."

The No-Zoner nodded gently and left me be, walking through the portal again and doubtless off to do other duties. I was now alone in the cave, looking over the jungles and listening to the relaxing sounds of the space before me. There wasn't much I could really do, but I was warm and comfortable, having thrown a blanket over myself before they came to pick me up. There was almost nothing to it, I mean I just sat there, in my wheelchair, alone with my thoughts. It's a nice wheelchair, actually; black metal with yellow pads and wheel rims. Not exactly my style but hey, it's stylish. Sorta. As I sat there, letting the rushing sound of the water calm me down, I just kept thinking and thinking - What was I going to do now that my legs were busted? What else did this multiverse have in store? What about Brevon and the Kingdom Stone, how would THAT pan out? But the thing that hurt most of all was that, sooner or later, I'd have to return home. To my own world...where I was clearly not welcome. Not like this. The events of yesterday had screwed me up so much; the last half-dragon, the one said to lead the rest of Planet Avalice to peace...stuck in a wheelchair. How would I live life in a world where my own reason to live was rendered...impossible?

"Nice view, huh Kiddo?" came a voice from the left of me. It was one that struck a nerve in me somewhere, for reasons I - in those seconds, at least - couldn't shake my head on. The voice sounded very familiar, as if it was my own, but...wrong. Like it was ravaged, old, grizzled if you will. I didn't want to turn around to see who it was...but I knew I sorta had to. But I was already scared. Only a few hours before, while they were preparing the room for my time there, I talked with a number of other Lilacs. Some of 'em were really weird...like, one was this huge wall of muscle and another was really fat. And they told me of...her.

C: 'Her?'

S: 'I think I know who she means.'

C: 'Really? Who?'

S: '...War Lilac.'

That's the one. She was right there, in front of me, stood upright and looking out over the view in front of us. She was just as damaged and ravaged as the others had told me; everything about her seemed wrong and off, violent even. Her scales were a darker shade than any other Lilac I had seen, with a number of them being burnt or even missing. Her fur was pale, wounded and some parts were even stitched together. Her hair was positively ruined, missing bits and being messy and jagged with even more burnt patches, and her clothes were a ravaged mockery of what I used to wear in the Red Scarves - black clothes and a red bandoleer, not even torn as completely ragged. And, of course, her face was...well. All I could process was the cracked, ashen horns with electricity coursing across the cracks and her two red pinprick eyes staring at me.

I didn't even get to processing her one synthetic tendril wrapped in red and black bandages, all I needed to see was the eyes. I screamed in terror, throwing myself backwards in an attempt to get away from her but only succeeding in throwing myself off the wheelchair and slamming to the floor. I tried to move my legs to try and crawl away from this creature, but...well, I couldn't. Obviously. I resorted to dragging myself across the floor, ignoring the sharper stones digging into my scales, as she simply stared at me, wobbling slightly. She sighed harshly, as if she was annoyed by this, but I was too scared to care.

"Oh jeez, this again?" she slurred, "Look friendo, I-"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" I screamed, still too terrified to think properly, "I don't wanna die to you!"

"Oh boy..." War Lilac pressed her fingers to her temple, before suddenly screaming, "COOL IT!" I stopped, shocked stiff by the outburst. War Lilac sighed in relief towards my stillness and took a swig from a flask I only noticed was on her person, "So, you must be the new girl. The next Lilac to be indoctrinated into this whole mess. Did the other Lilacs tell you about me, by any chance?"

I calmed myself and responded timidly, "Y-Yes. They told me all about you. How you destroyed your own universe out of hatred and spite. How you've wreaked havoc across the whole multiverse trying to find this man who wronged you. The Broken Dragon. She Who Walks Among the Dead!"

"Is THAT what they tell you?" War Lilac responded bitterly, going to take another swig of her flask but pausing, looking back at me with a sour look on her face, "Well...they're not wrong. I'll give you the short story; I lost everything, and it broke me. That explain it?"

"...Sort of?"

"Tough," War Lilac growled, "Don't worry, I ain't gonna hurt you. Frankly, I-*HIC* I-I'm too drunk to do anything violent even if I wanted to. I...do not. Not right now. Having one of my downer moments here..."

"...Why?"

"'Cause sometimes, it all comes down on you, ya know?" War Lilac sighed, taking another swig of her drink and tearing up, "It just closes in on you, ya know? It beats you down, beats you back, and you just remember everything awful that happens to you..." she began to sob, hugging herself, "And-and then you're left alone in the world with no-one but your own memories! You think I LIKE being mental?! I've got no home, no friends...and no Milla!"

War Lilac broke down sobbing totally, presumably in a mixture of the booze and what she lost. Milla? Did she lose Milla?

S: 'Indeed. Though no-one really knows how she did...only that she did.'

...Creepy. Thankfully, her breakdown was short-lived. She sobbed for a few seconds, and then suddenly stopped cold. Her eyes widened and her cheeks puffed up, while a gurgling sound emitted from her. She broke out into a sprint and was soon arching over the lip of the hole in the cave. She retched, and the sound of vomit tumbled out of her mouth and into the rainforest below.

C: 'So...she chucked up.'

Yes.

C: '...Gross.'

It was. She tumbled back into the cave, lying with her back against the lip and staring down at the rocky floor, "Oh, dang it...there goes my bacon sandwich..." she coughed up the last of the sick, then turned to me, "See what I mean? These things really can just pile up on top of you...you, specifically..." She sighed, taking another shot from her flask and then crawling across the cave until she was next to me, "I've heard what happened...'bout your spine."

"Yeah..." I sighed, hugging my senseless legs, "Shattered my...T10, was it? Doctors said I'd never walk again."

"Oooooh..." War Lilac sighed...and chuckled, "Ooooooohooohoohooooo...how tragic."

I growled, feeling very offended, "You don't sound sympathetic."

"Well, you know it's sad and all..." War Lilac sighed, "But...well, look at me. At least you still have your Carol, and your Milla, and these No-Zone Bozos don't hate your every breath. At least you didn't have everything taken from you, through no fault of your own."

"Yes, because Breadbasket shooting me in the lower part of my spine was totally my own doing. But...I don't have my legs anymore..." I whined, "At least you can go places unaided! At least you can...well, WALK. Look at me! I can't do anything, go anywhere. My life as I loved it is...over..." I sobbed too, "It's not fair."

"Life ain't fair," War Lilac growled bitterly, taking a swig of her flask, "Get used to it."

C: 'Well she just sounds like a horrible version of you. So selfish!'

S: 'And that, sadly, is her on a good day.'

I sighed. I knew War Lilac would be destructive, but not THIS destructive. Not this kind of destructive, at least. I thought she'd be violent, angry, the kind to attack someone. Not someone who would put you down with bitter statements like that. She made me feel so...worthless. But I sort of thought she had a point, as well.

C: '...Wait, WHAT?!'

Life wasn't fair. Things just happened. Clearly, they did. And, with this whole multiverse thing common knowledge to me now, I knew how...well, common this sort of thing was. This stuff just happened as it did. But that didn't make it any better or worse. I sat there, sitting next to this drinking demon, slowly sobbing and motionless. From that little outburst, I felt so awful. Just being seen as a stupid cripple by a Lilac technically worse off than me I...I...

C: 'No, Lilac no. Please don't cry again...'

Sorry...sorry...it's just really hard to remember all this again. As I sat there, glaring at War Lilac empty her flask and toss it to the side with a metallic ping, the portal in front of us murmured back into life for a while. Fixating myself with the portal to forget what had just happened, me and War Lilac stared into the portal as two others emerged from it. Another two Lilacs, actually. One was just like me, same clothes and all...except she was standing. But, wrapped around her face and head, was this sort of...rag. Like, a bunch of rags wrapped around her face, looking dirty but I think that was just for show. Other than that, she looked normal, with the same shade of colour on her scales and even had a big smile on her face. The other me looked like an adventurer of some sorts, with a set of lightweight clothes that exposed her tummy, a light blue tank top with fur trimming to be precise. She also wore leggings, a skirt with a dark blue cover over the top with the Shang Tu royal symbol on it, alongside tough boots and worn gloves. She didn't have tendrils, instead having a blue dagger and what seemed to be a whip made out of the tendrils attached to her waist. This adventurer Lilac was holding the rag-wearing Lilac's hand, and both were looking at me - and smiling.

"Oh Christ it's Pinky and Perky..." War Lilac growled, "Legless, hold my flask."

I bitterly flipped her the bird in response. War Lilac simply growled at me instead, and got up to check on the two other Lilacs that had joined the fray. She was about to say something, presumably something about 'gettin' out of here' or something like that, when the adventurer Lilac suddenly dug out a tazing device.

C: 'Tazing Device?'

S: 'Basically...uh, it stops people. With electricity.'

So yeah, War Lilac didn't take it very well. The moment the device fired, she tensed up and screeched, dropping to the floor. I remember she grunted repeatedly as she thrashed around while wires were stuck to her, but then she sighed and went limp. I was shocked, confused at what had just happened, while the adventurer Lilac dropped to one knee to check her over.

"Escaped her cage again, I see," she sighed, pulling out a walkie-talkie of sorts, "Officer to AR-033. Lilith got out of her cell again, request pickup and transfer..." she turned to me quickly, putting on a warm smile, "Hey there, Lilac from 083. Nice to meet you."

I paused, unsure of what to say and REALLY confused at this point. We merely stared at each other for a few seconds before I drummed up the courage to speak, "Uh...who are you?"

"We're the people the No-Zone arranged to meet you," the adventurer Lilac said, "Sorry about War Lilac over there. She got loose from her containment cell and managed to get into the bar in Sector 33. Took a flask of our strongest stuff, cheeky girl. A few days in Isolation should make her think twice about that..." she chuckled, walking over to me and grabbing me by under my arms. On the count of three, she helped me off of the floor, carrying me to my wheelchair that the rag wearing Lilac had set up again. I was set back down into the wheelchair and, after I had got comfortable, the other Lilac continued, "Well, my name is Lady Lilac, from FP-003. And this is...uh, Blind Lilac, of FP-099."

"...Blind Lilac?"

"I picked the name myself," the rag-wearing Lilac said, somehow turning to me, "I like to get to the point, you see. Blunt edge if there ever was one."

"Exactly," Lady Lilac said, smiling, "She's your contact for the day."

"That I am," Blind Lilac said proudly, "Lady Lilac told me that you were coming in and had a chat with the other Lilacs. You looked a little down, probably due to your...uh, condition, and I decided to come find you for a nice little pep talk. Sound fair?"

"A pep talk?" I asked, resting my head on my hand, "Hmm...I suppose it'd help. I mean, this isn't exactly the best way to live...and that..." I pointed to War Lilac's crumpled body, "THING didn't help."

"Yeah, don't worry about her," Lady Lilac chuckled, "She's REALLY lost her bite in the past. She went from a super scary killer to just some thug with severe insecurity. Kind of ran out of things to do with her, you know? Oh well. I'm sure she'll get better in the future. Pay no attention to her, though. She's not exactly the nicest person on the planet."

"Clearly..." I sighed, turning to Blind Lilac, "So I guess...well, you're blind."

"Obviously," Blind Lilac said, pointing to her bandages, "Have been for a few months now. How about you? Are you okay with discussing how you lost your legs, or..."

"Well..." I said, "If you tell me how you got blinded. Sounds like a fair trade."

"Sure," Blind Lilac gave a quick thumbs up, "So, how'd it happen?"

"...Thermal Base," I sighed, "Couple guys and gals said they could change my future, save my life. They stopped me from getting tortured, which was nice...but then old Breadbasket shoots me in the spine with one of their own guns."

"Ooh, heard about that," Lady Lilac seethed, "Surgeon told me. Shattered your T10, right? Paralysed you from the waist down?"

"Yeah..." I sobbed, "Yeah. So, that's how I lost my legs. How'd you lose your eyes?"

"Jade Creek," Blind Lilac said confidently, "I was fighting Neera-Li to try and escape her, and she tried to freeze my legs to stop me from moving. But I managed to get her to trip up at the last second and...well, let's just say I got ice in my eyes...and it shattered."

"Ooh!" I cringed, "Sounds painful!"

"Yeah, it was..." Blind Lilac said, rubbing where her eyes should have been, "I'm just happy it shredded ONLY my eyes and didn't go into my brain. Then I'd be in REAL trouble. But I'm fine now. I mean I guess I spent a lot of time in a jail cell but when The Magister got around to researching that thing Torque gave him...well, let's just say Neera got a bit more than a pang of guilt and a gentle warning."

"You mean she got fired?"

"Oh she got SO fired," Blind Lilac chuckled, "For Gross Misdeeds, False Accusation and clouding her own judgments with bias. Luckily, Carol and The Red Scarves were able to defeat Brevon and remove Dail's brainwashing, so she got her old place back by his side instead. And...well, when I'm in my own world she kind of cares for me."

"...What?" I asked incredulously.

Blind Lilac shrugged in response, "Call it an extended apology for blinding me in the first place, heh heh. But hey, at least that means I didn't get shocked either...a bit like you. Granted, we DID end up with worse injuries as a result, but..."

"Yeah, that's kind of the problem her, isn't it?" I crowed, "So what if we didn't get shocked? We'd recover, wouldn't we?"

Lady Lilac looked a tad forlorn, "...Not all of us, kiddo. Evil Lilac didn't get the treatment. War Lilac didn't get the treatment...I didn't get the treatment."

"Oh..." I gasped, feeling something well in the pit of my stomach, "I'm...I'm sorry."

"It's okay, kiddo," Lady Lilac chirped, "I got over it in the end. A wanderer from another world helped me. Perhaps, if I ever find him again, I'll tell him to pay you a visit. That might help, heh heh."

"Regardless," Blind Lilac said quickly, before slowly making her way to my side with arms outstretched. She grasped my arm, then the side of my wheelchair and knelt down by its side. For someone with no eyesight she was good at moving herself. She managed to look vaguely at me and continued, "These problems, with the legs? Trust me, they are minor obstacles when you put your mind to it properly. I mean, look at me. I can never seen my friends again, even when I'm right next to them. Well, kind of, the No-Zone is trying to develop some tech so I sort of CAN see again. Heck, maybe they'll do the same with you! But right now, everything's going to be different and the best you can do is tackle it with a smile, like I can...and I do, come to think of it. I would like to see again, sure, but I'm not going to let it get me down. I still helped save the world from the sidelines, that's good enough for me. I suppose what I'm trying to say is...please don't treat this like it's the end of the world. Because it isn't. It's another step in your own staircase of life...probably not the best choice of words, in hindsight."

"No..." I growled, "But, I understand what you mean. I guess I spent so much time running away from everything and everyone, how a lot of people decreed me less than worthless - Neera, the Magister...Brevon..." my hands gripped the sidebars of my wheelchair as hard as they could as anger welled up within me from the mere mention of that green-skinned maniac, "But..." I calmed myself and continued, "Perhaps I ran into so many people who wanted me gone I thought I'd never get true compassion again...not since Carol left me for dead and those other guys got me shot for their troubles."

"No, no, don't focus on them..." Blind Lilac reached out and stroked my cheek. I almost flinched at the feeling, her hand so soft and fair as it glided across my face, "Lowell and his band of merry mercenaries are not your concern. I mean they kind of ARE your concern seeing as they led to the events that damaged you, but they are not worth your time. The No-Zone should deal with them when the time comes. They are but bit players in your own story. It's your, girl. Take control of it, write it the way you see fit. You are stronger than you think you are, and your disability should not get you down. Things can be...bad, but hey, silver lining to every cloud! You're stronger than you think, girl. Just have to live your life to the fullest, and let nothing slow you down."

Moved to tears, feeling loved and cared for, I smiled back and softly grabbed Blind Lilac's arm. "Th-thank you. I haven't heard stuff like that for a long, long time..."

"You're welcome," Blind Lilac chirped, standing up, "Right, I think we should get a No-Zone member to take you home, no? I'm sure you didn't tell your Carol what you were doing. She must be worried sick!"

"I suppose..." I sighed, "I did kind of leave her at home. She's trying to take care of me and...well, I don't want to put that on her. Pfft, it IS a bit funny, though. MY Carol. What about yours? What about your Carol?"

"Well, with one less Neera in the Shang Tu Royal Forces, let's just say an opening was...acquired," Blind Lilac chuckled, "After all, who better to catch the criminals than an Ex-Red Scarf?"

"Heh, cool..." I said, trailing off. I couldn't stop staring at the still unconscious War Lilac in the corner, stirring in her slumber but otherwise silent, "What happened to her? I don't think I want to see her for a long, long time."

"Oh you won't, don't worry," Blind Lilac sighed, "But yeah, she's creepy, ain't she? And the worst thing is...she's not the creepiest."

"Well, who is..." I began to ask, before I slowly stopped. A dark, deep bubbling sound was echoing out behind me, and I turned my wheelchair around to see what it was. There was what could only be described as a puddle of dirty water behind me, bubbling and boiling as if it was coming to life. And...it did.

S: 'Uh-oh. I think I know who you're talking about...'

Yeah. Fear slowly welled up in my system as a figure slowly rose out of the puddle, like a demon escaping from Hell itself. It then went into overdrive as the water slowly formed more details, looking more and more like...me! First was the head, a dark and pale purple in colour, with horns comprised of white, cracked bone, while her eyes were filled with water and she was crying endlessly. Next was her torso, with her tendrils reduced to bone as well, while her clothes were soggy, darkened and hastily repaired with scraps of blue fabrics. Her shorts were ripped, her limbs were covered in bandages, her belt was hanging off her waist and her earpieces were completely gone, with strange spikes projecting out of where they once stood. She raised a clawed hand to attempt wave, but in my hyperventilating status I did not notice.

"WeLl..." the being croaked, with the voice of a thousand drowned souls, "ThErE iS mE...hElLo ThErE, i Am-"

That was about all I could understand before I freaked out. Yelling and screaming, I threw myself out of the wheelchair and, slammed into the floor, curled into a fetal position as best as I could. I was struggling, screaming, foaming at the mouth at the sheer horror that I saw in front of me, but even above the tight grip this terror had on me, I could only hear a few things, from Blind Lilac;

"Wh-What's happening?!"

"Poor girl's got the sh...uh, the crap scared out of her!" Lady Lilac said, grabbing my body and trying to calm me, "She's going into shock. Drowned Lilac, what did I tell you of making an unexpected entrance towards new Lilacs?!"

"I'm SoRrY..." Drowned Lilac wailed, "It WoN't HaPpEn AgAiN, i PrOmIsE..."

"It better not," Lady Lilac pleaded, before I mercifully lost consciousness, "Medical Agent to AR-033, stat! As in, RIGHT NOW!"


	9. Chapter 9: The Showing Cracks

Lilac simply sighed as the others stared at her, some shocked and others worried. She guessed that this would happen, to be honest. How else would they react to someone just encountering a dead, drowned version of themselves and then dropping to the floor foaming in shock. The Surgeon looked mildly surprised, as if he had already seen this sort of thing before (which he probably had), while both Carol and Milla had let their jaws fall to the floor from the revelation.

"So uh...yeah," Lilac scratched the back of her head, "That's what happened. When I woke up again, I found myself in the medical ward, where the others had taken me. And man, how glad am I for that?"

"...I'm sorry, but a DROWNED version of you?!" Carol asked out loud, "Like, that's literally in her name?"

"Yep," Surgeon shrugged, "From universe FP-009. That universe's version of Brevon had a very...different idea on how to torture Lilac. Details are a bit sketchy, but I'm sure he tied some cinder blocks to her feet and threw her into this tank of water and filmed it as she-"

"Yes yes, THANK YOU..." Carol stopped him quickly, "We don't exactly want to know how another Lilac drowned in explicit detail, alright?"

"R-Right. Sorry, sorry."

"It's okay," Lilac sighed, "I mean, she told me herself, so...a-anyway, when I was awoken they decided it would be best to take me home. I told Carol what had happened...and omitted some parts..."

"Clearly," Carol huffed.

"I did spend a lot of time ruminating on what had happened, though. How three Lilacs could be so different, from small events changing the whole of their lives. One a paragon of ultimate morality and compassion, another a renegade of bitter resentment, guilt and rage, and the third being...well, just herself but in a very different way. Another couple of Lilacs in my own position in their own ways and they were fine...well, most of them, anyway."

"Gotta admit, I was kind of confused when Lilac returned home shaken," Carol went on to explain, "She brushed it off as another accidental shock, but she wouldn't divulge any of the real information no matter how hard I tried to ask her. After that, another couple of days ran past without issue - Lilac stayed in the treehouse while I went out to buy things while Milla was on hand to help her clean up, play around and eat, as well as go to the bathroom. It was actually going well, but as I've said before...well, I could never really shake that feeling that Lilac couldn't really get over what happened to her."

"Oh, thanks."

"I..." Carol tried to argue, but stopped and she sighed, "Sorry Lilac. It's just that I looked into your face and you looked like you were barely hanging on. Like, you tried not to be sad for me and Milla. But I guess there's always just a breaking point...for all of us. I remember the day. It was...well, it only two days ago. Six-ish days into her new life and we already reached a snapping point...well, two, actually..." she turned to Lilac, "You don't mind if I talk about...that, right?"

"The bathroom incident? I can do it if you want..." Lilac sighed too, to which Carol shrugged, "Okay then. Well, it was the night of the fifth day. I had just spent it milling around, playing video games with Milla while Carol went out to, uh, fish some crystals off of unsuspecting tourists. She got back with a pretty decent supply, we had some supper and then we were getting ready to go to bed. I felt a little discomfort in my...well, bladder, but I thought nothing of it, long until Carol had helped me to bed."

===-===  
Hours passed in lucid dreaming, where I dreamed of...a lot of things, actually. Of the events that had caused this change in my life. Of that Lowell man, on his knees, apologising again and again and again. Even dreamed of Spade doing...well, weird things to areas where I could no longer feel.

C: 'Eew.'

Yeah. But then it changed to something else. Specifically, water. Like, a world of water. Rushing water, lakes, pools, even the sea in the distance. Just, like, taps and pipes and stuff. And water...water everywhere. Rushing. I looked around at the odd dark-blue sky and looked at the water all around me. A strange feeling welled up within me, this uncomfortable feeling in my lower body, something cold and...uh, wet. After a while, I think I knew what it was all trying to tell me.

"Oh...I need to pee. Like, really bad."

I awoke in an instant, gasping and panting for breath. It was the dead of night, both Carol and Milla were asleep. Apart from the dark blue shades from the moon pouring into the room, there was no light to speak of. I sat up in bed, looking around at the others around me. Carol was above me, asleep and snoring in the top bunk of the bunk bed, while Milla was peacefully sleeping in her doggy bed as well. The uncomfortable feeling was welling up in me again, and I knew I had to go - fast.

C: 'Well...why didn't you just wake me up?'

...I didn't want to be a burden.

C: 'Lilac, you are NEVER a burden. Ever.'

Well, I thought I was at the time. But I didn't want to wake you. Nor did I want to wake Milla either. I didn't want to be waited on hand and foot. I wanted to be more independent. More...me. And I decided that this would be the best possible way to go about that; I was going to make it to the bathroom, all by myself, no issues whatsoever! I grabbed the edge of the bed and, with a silent thump, managed to quietly sink to the floor. I knew that this was going to be hard, not having control of my legs anymore, but I was going to give it the biggest try ever. I grabbed the next floorboard with my left hand and, with a shifting grunt, began to slowly crawl along the ground.

For the first minute or so, it actually went quite well. I was making slow but good progress and, eventually, I managed to make it to the doorframe and was soon in the hallway...and that's when the issues began. The feeling, that uncomfortable feeling in my stomach and...uh, nether regions, was only getting worse and worse. The feeling was bubbling up stronger and stronger, but I felt like I could control it. I began to panic nevertheless, desperately trying to crawl faster and faster, scrabbling at the ground and wearing the skin down on my fingers and parts of the wood as well. The feeling got worse, and worse, and worse. I frenzied my way down the hallway and I was close...I was so close! Until...

C: 'Uh, I don't think we need THAT detail.'

Sorry. Want to take over here?

C: 'Sure.'

===-===  
Frankly, I could hear the scrabbling from the hallway from my own bed, thanks very much. I lay in my bed, confused and wondering what that noise even was. Bugs? Rodents? I didn't know. At least until the scrabbling stopped...and the screaming sobbing started. I threw myself out of bed, grabbed my flashlight and rushed out of the bedroom to see what had happened to Lilac. Clicking my flashlight on, a beam of light shone upon this lump in the darkness until I could see who it was. It was Lilac laying on her stomach, just outside the bathroom...and sobbing within a puddle of her own...you know.

S: '...You don't think we might be going into too much information here, right?'

Yeah, I think we are. I approached Lilac as fast as I could, confused and shocked all the same, "Lilac, what the hell?! What happened?!"

"I...I..." Lilac sobbed, "I tried to make it to the bathroom and I..."

"Why?!" I cried out, my emotions running wild, "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Lilac screamed, sobbing even harder.

"Lilac, please! It's alright, it's alright..." I sighed, grabbing Lilac and trying not to touch the wet patches, "Well, do you still need to go?" she nodded silently, "Alright, well we'll get you in the bathroom properly, I'll get you washed and put in some fresh clothes, I'll clean up this mess and we'll go right back to sleep. JUST PLEASE ASK ME..." I tried my hardest not to lose my temper...and failed, "NEXT TIME YOU WANT TO DO THIS. ALRIGHT?!"

"Y-Yes..." Lilac whimpered, scared at my outburst, "Yes, miss..."

I stopped at Lilac calling me 'miss'. It kind of made me regret shouting at her to begin with. Was I really that harsh? I didn't mean to...

"Carol?" came a squeak of a voice behind me. I turned to look at Milla, who was in her nightrobes and clutching her teddy bear, "What's all the noise about? Is Lilac alright?"

I sighed heavily, pressing my free hand to my temple, growls in my voice, "We're FINE, Milla. I can handle this...please, just go back to bed."

Milla nodded, understanding, "Yes...Miss."

The next morning got off to a much better start. The night before I cleaned up the mess and helped Lilac with her...business, then got her back to bed with a cup of warm milk to help her sleep. I got her up in the morning and then we had a nice bowl of cereal in the morning. Milla was poking at her bowl of Mayor Flakes before she saw me wheel Lilac in for her bowl, "Oh, hey Lilac! You feeling better today?"

"Yeah..." Lilac said quietly, her tone dismal and grounded. It was clear that what had happened last night had taken a lot of spirit out of her. Still, she faked a smile, "I'm fine."

"Good!" Milla chirped, "Because we've got something super special for us to do today!"

"Have we?" Lilac asked quietly.

"Indeed we do," I said, placing Lilac's bowl in front of her and then going to take a bite out of my own, "It'll help, especially in light of yesterday. Today, we're going to go off into Shang Mu itself, for shopping, dinner and a show!"

"Really?" Lilac asked.

"Yeah!" I said back, "Remember what you said to Milla? Back on the airship, before we got captured? You said we could go out for a night on the town, getting dresses, or just pigging out on a giant plate of sushi! I feel guilty that we never got to do that...so we're gonna do it now!"

"Really?" Lilac asked me again, a small smile creeping across her face, "Well...cool."

I probably won't bother with the details of the journey, as it was...basically like the last time we tried to take public transport. This time we took the train because, well, even a bus wouldn't make it to Shang Mu in any real amount of time. Besides, I like trains. They go zooooom. Still, it was sorta the same thing with that one as well - people stared at us. Well, at Lilac.

L: 'It wasn't nice, is what I'm trying to say...so many people...looking at me like I was lesser than them.'

Made me angry, that's for sure. I think I lashed out this time as well, seeing as my patience was already getting stretched at this time. I remember shouting at one of them, screaming even, which kept the rest of them quiet until we got to Shang Mu itself. No-one said a WORD as we got off the train and into the city itself. Normally people who visit the place for shopping and a show normally visit at night, so they can see the whole city lit up at night by the neon hanging off everything.

S: 'So...I'm just going to assume a lot of crime happens during that time."

Yep. Mostly from the Red Scarves patrolling the area for training. Being a Red Scarf myself basically meant that I would be immune to such problems, and it's not like I and Milla couldn't fight back. But with the cold reception I got from Spade AND Lilac's condition, I didn't wanna risk it. Still, the city looked dang impressive even during the day, seeing as the lack of neon lighting really gave it a more...homey vibe. A friendlier vibe. At least the debris from Brevon's attack on the city only a week and a couple days back had been cleaned up. Granted Mayor Zao probably didn't KNOW we were back, and I was in no rush to let him know, but nevertheless, I wanted to do this...for Lilac.

L: 'I must admit, I could see how this was affecting you, you know? You snapped more, you talked back when stressed...but you still cared for me.'

Yeah...I did. Not enough, really.

"Right," I remember saying at the time, "So...what do we want to do. The dinner and show bit ain't for another couple hours yet."

"I wanna go shopping!" Milla cried out, "I wanna get some new clothes, and some dolls, and some video games..."

"Careful, Milla," Lilac warned, "Don't wanna spend ALL the money. Buuuut...I'd like to get some treats...and some new clothes...and maybe some diap-"

"NO, Lilac," I snapped, almost scathingly, making Lilac flinch in shock. I calmed myself, "No...no diapers. We can prevent what happened last night. We just need a little...extra work."

"Eeeeeewww..." Milla whined, "Are we gonna split up?"

"I guess..." Carol said, "I don't exactly want to look for dresses and the such. I might get some sushi that we can ALL enjoy. So, Lilac...who do you want to go with?"

Lilac thought long and hard about this, looking up at me, then down at Milla and back again. I could almost HEAR the gears working in her head, determining what she would say and thus do. She sighed, "I would like to go with Milla...she's a bit quieter."

I paused. Did she mean that I shouted too much at her?

L: '...Yes.'

Oh...thanks. I knew something felt off. I sighed and waved my hand, almost accidentally dismissively, "Okay then. I'll get us some sushi and home supplies. You two enjoy yourselves, yeah? Here are some gems for the purchases."

"Thanks, Carol!" Milla yapped happily, taking the gems I had fished out for the two, "Love you!"

"Love you too, Milla..." I sighed happily, watching the two wander down the road towards the commercial district. I yawned, stretching my back, "Right...off to the spa for me. I can't deal with this...I feel like I'm gonna snap..."

...Oh. Well, I do remember that Milla did wheel me down into the market areas. I had a mission, something on my mind...a Sushi Maker. Something that would make my life a lot easier, regardless of my own body. I wasn't too sure what Milla would have wanted - new clothes, some food, perhaps some new toys - so I decided to lie low and see if I could be any sort of help.

About a couple minutes after we split up from the entrance, me and Milla were already in the town itself, looking around the market stalls that were really only there during the day. I kept forgetting how colourful and beautiful the markets looked. It looked totally unlike Shang Mu during it's more renowned hours - there was not a single neon light up and running at the moment, replaced instead by massive ribbons of silk and other types of cloth that hung from the various buildings and covered their red and gold engravings. The stalls too were colourful, covered in red and yellow sashes from the top of their simple construction, each selling different items from them. One sold perfumes, another sold clothes, some sold street food and others still were selling jewels and accessories, all of which thankfully were low enough as to allow me to look at them.

I approached one of them, a stall selling perfume of some sort, draped in purple robes and silk and with a baroque sign reading, "Azima Jazmine". I couldn't tell if the Z instead of the S in Jasmine was supposed to be intentional or otherwise, but I DID kinda find it charming. I nudged Milla to move me closer a bit and she obliged, wheeling me forward until the counter was within reach. The counter itself had a purple carpet-sorta thing spread across it, with bottles of perfume littered across it. Some of them I recognised, like "Earthy Crystal" and "Dragon Kiss", but then there was stuff I didn't get like...uh, "Shadows of Evil".

S: 'Heh heh. Gotta love that earthy Apothicon smell.'

...Okay. Well, there was someone manning the stall, the pre-assumed Azima. She was...weird. Like, she was a dark-furred female non-dragon creature like Lowell's wife was. Only here I couldn't determine what species she was; everything except her face was covered in black cloth, wearing a headdress with the rear flap dropping as low as the top of her back, while the rest was covered with a set of grey clothes and a black cloak over the top of it. She looked a bit...dodgy, but I remained confident and I cleared my throat, "Ahem, uh excuse me?"

The woman turned to look down at me from where she was standing. Her purple eyes gazed into mine with a steely stare, but she chuckled and acted warmly, as if I was a long-known friend, "Ah, hahahaha. Hello, young dragon. Welcome to Azima Jazmine, home of the finest otherworldly perfumes this side of the Three Kingdoms. I am Azima. How may I help you? Anything you like the look of?"

I paused and mumbled something out. I was a bit surprised. Her accent perfectly matched her appearance, being strange and clearly not from around here. Almost as otherworldly as the perfumes she was selling. No-Zone workers and contacts called it "Arabic", which I don't think was a part of Planet Avalice...either that, or I had never visited it. Maybe one day I will. Anyway, I cleared my throat again and glanced quickly at the counter below me. The various bottles had a number of smells that even I knew of. Some were nice, some were not, but there WAS one I loved but never got; "Frozen Fields". A very...high-end perfume, had a smell of a beautiful Winter's morning. I loved it ever since I got roped into a Gala Night down the Shang Tu Music Hall. It's...very much a long story. But I could never get it, far too expensive. Any perfume Carol found while practising her skills on passersby was a luxury in and of itself, let alone something like that. But now? I could afford it. And that was what I was going to do.

"Yes!" I blurted out suddenly, causing even her to jump in shock. I calmed myself and talked slower, "Sorry...I would like the, uh...the Frozen Fields, please..."

"The...Frozen...Fields..." Azime muttered, trying to find it on the counter. She found it in the end, a light blue bottle that was jagged with a darker blue top, "Ahh, this one, yes? That will be...uh, let's see..." she quickly ducked underneath the counter, coming back up with some paper and a pair of reading glasses. She put them on and studied the paper accordingly, "Right, uh...says here about 75 crystals...75?!"

"Yeah..." I chuckled softly, "Thaaaaat sounds about right."

As I handed over the crystals to pay for it, Azima flashed what little of a face of confusion as she could under her headdress, "It does not make sense for me. 75 currency for some scented water? I do not understand..."

"Well, why sell perfume at all?" Milla asked innocently.

"Well..." Azima said slowly, "I am...not from around here, to say the least. Me and my...I GUESS boyfriend decided to take up some temporary residence here, learn some skills, you know? Even if we do not understand how this crazy, crazy world works. Well, I would say I understand it more than him. I do not know, this place feels...familiar to me. Like I've been here before..."

"Really?" I asked, stars in my eyes, "Well, great! Say, where did you come from, then? I don't remember there being a place on Avalice that acts and dresses like that."

Azima flashed a really weird look at me, and I wasn't sure if she was reacting to what I said or just thinking hard. She hmm and hummed before she eventually replied to me, "Well...let us just say that I come from a world away. I apologise if that sounds cryptic, but...well. OH YES, speaking of my boyfriend...well, you're Sash Lilac, are you not?"

I paused, wondering what she could have meant by that question. I mean, why WOULD she ask my name. I remember she eyed my wheelchair oddly, and it made me feel somewhat uncomfortable. Milla spoke up instead, her voice a proud bark bristling with joy, "Oh yes, miss. She is Sash Lilac, saviour of the world and the Legendary Water Dragon!" A small bout of sadness welling up in me again, I gave Milla a little nudge to tell her what she said wasn't helping me; her boasting only brought back what I had seen at the castle a couple days back, and I didn't exactly want to be reminded of that again.

M: 'Aww...I was only trying to help...'

I know, kiddo. It's just that...well, I still didn't feel all that good about myself after I learned what I was supposed to be. At the very least, you cleared your throat and corrected yourself, "Well...she kinda was..."

I'm not sure if that helped or not, I can't remember. Nevertheless, Azima looked at me with a dejected sense of pity, almost like it mattered to her in some personal way, "Yes, I have heard of what happened. It is a real shame, for all of us. You were doing a better job that those clueless Shang Tu forces. That Mayor Zao and his pig-iron weaponry, I do not trust that little bulbous maniac as far as I could throw him!"

"Yeah, me neither..." I sighed. Even I knew, underneath all of his thrills and happy smiles, Zao was a menace. I kinda thought as much when he offered us free sushi. Not at the time, though. I mean I guess I was just a little kid back then.

S: 'You're still young now. It was only two weeks ago.'

Yeah, but, you know? I guess after the whole 'losing my limbs after running into an adventure' thing, part of me felt like I needed to mature. Take things slower. Take in more of what was around me. And all things considered, I'd like to think I was doing a decent job of it. Gah, even now I can still remember the birds flying and chirping, the colours of the banners, right bright blue sky. But inside all I could think about was Zao. Now that I had time to think about what I was doing, I knew what games he was trying to play. How he had given us free sushi to soften us up for his own schemes. He probably KNEW he'd be sending us back to get arrested. Then of course, we ran to the cave and Carol walked off then I met those jokers and...well, here we are. That crazy woman was right, he WAS a maniac. But then again...how did SHE know about him? She was from another part of the planet, after all, and it was clear she wasn't used to our customs. And where DID she come from, anyway? There are no deserts on Avalice, and no major settlements outside of the Three Kingdoms! I-

C: 'Lilac? You're kinda rambling...'

Yeah, yeah, sorry. Kind of had a lot going through my mind at the time. This woman, this strange person hidden behind all those clothes, she was just...eerie. I spoke up, "Wait a second, if you're not from around here, how do you know of Zao and his tricks?"

So anyway..." she said, after a small pause from a confused expression. I was slightly disappointed at this, how she chose to just ignore the question, I wanted to know more. But she had...other plans. She reached under the counter, coming up with another bottle of the Frozen Fields stuff. I was confused...I was just paying for one, right? She cleared her throat, "Here. I was told to give this to you alongside the original. Sort of a 'get well' gesture item you Avalicians like so much."

I'm sure even Carol, having her professional mud bath halfway across the city, could hear the excited and joyful squee at this, uh...revelation. Man, I can't even remember what feelings I was experiencing at the time outside of a panicked excitement that I was getting one of the most expensive, highest-quality perfumes on the market, for FREE! I mean yeah, technically it was two for the price of one, but I got a free one and that's all that mattered! I shook and clasped my hands to my cheeks, squeeing all the time. I can only imagine the looks I got were...well, they sorta didn't help later down the line.

M: 'Yeah, I remember seeing that lady's face, sorta. She was...really confused at you. I gave her a bit of a glare to see if that would change it, but it kinda...didn't.'

I thought so. It took a minute, but I finally calmed down and slumped in my wheelchair, panting for breath. I stared at Azima, who by this point seemed to get over my own over-excitement and I cleared my throat sheepishly, "Uh...uh, sorry."

"It is okay," Azima said, waving it off near dismissively, to my own dismay, "With these sorts of prices, it would be extremely fortunate to get both for one, no? Again, it is a gift from me and a friend of mine. He's somewhere in the main shopping area, I think. Looking for a few bargains and trinkets. Let us say...we do not exactly get them like you get them here, back home..."

"Well, I hope you both find what you're looking for," I chirped, taking both bottles and handing them to Milla, who promptly put both of them in the space behind the back of the wheelchair, "If I run into your friend, I'll quickly say hi. What does he look like?"

"Oh don't worry," Azima said, looking at me with an almost sly look on her face, "You will know him when you see him. Have fun with the rest of your day, Miss Lilac."

"I will. Thank you!" I said back, giving her a playful wave as I signalled Milla to wheel me left into the rest of the market. As I turned to give Azima one final wave, I saw her wave back and then turn back to another customer, uh that guard that goes "weh" a lot, I think. Even as I left, though, something felt quite off about her; who she was, what she said, how she dressed. She felt...not of this world. After running into those No-Zoners, I was absolutely sure that something was, for lack of a better word, off.

After that, things get a bit sketchy. I remember that we were simply wheeling through the various market stalls, looking at what each had to offer. Some sold toys, some sold arts and crafts, some sold food and more besides sold these little twirly things that're all the rage these days. You know, the ones that have dragons carved into the arms that hold the bearings and it makes it look like a flying dragon when you spin it, those ones! Heh heh, those are pretty cool.

C: 'And they keep Milla entertained...no offence, Milla."

M: 'It's okay...'

We were just dashing throughout the stalls, looking at this and that and buying everything we wanted. I bought myself a new hairbrush, some homemade toffee slabs, a bottle of East Gardens wine for my next annual meeting and I even bought myself a new dress shawl...thing. Granted, I haven't tried it on yet, but...well. Couldn't find a sushi maker, though - those would only be in the "proper" stores, I suppose. Milla, on the other hand, I think she bought some toys, a couple action figures, a pillow she could rest on while sitting in the sitting room, and even one of those spinner things. Certainly not like she didn't have much choice, you know what I mean? I think we were there for a while, about an hour and a half? But by the end, we were both happy, and both satisfied. All we had to do now was check out the main shops, meet back up with Carol, and then go get dinner and a show. And I'm gonna be honest...I kind of regretted that last bit.

C: 'Yeah...me too. All of it.'

S: 'Wait a minute...Azima in the middle of Shang Mu? That sounds familiar to me...'


	10. Chapter 10: Joke Night

**/** Strap yourselves in, this one's gonna get...mean. */**

There was a slight pause as Lilac slowly stared at Surgeon, "...Well? Where was all this familiar from, then? Did you...do something, or..."

"Give me a second..." Surgeon hummed, tapping his screwdriver to his chin, "I'm sure I've heard of this before...OH! Yes! Day Trip #79!"

"Day Trip #79?" Carol asked, a single eyebrow raised in suspicion, "The heck?"

"Well...let me explain," Surgeon said, rubbing his hands together before clearing his throat, "Ahem. Right then. It somewhat goes without saying that I am a frightfully busy man sometimes. Sometimes I'm saving the universe on my own in my TARDIS, sometimes I'm helping the No-Zone track down some poor schmoe who ended up in the wrong universe...but other times, I'm in this other world. SH-230. The Travellerverse."

"Travellerverse?" Lilac asked, scratching her head, "Why does that sound so familiar?"

"Eeeeeeh..." Surgeon shrugged, "Ever since The Event, a lot of Lilacs have said that. Probably a runoff effect of what ole' Markus got up to in the OLD world. Mmmm hmm."

"...Mr Surgeon, sir?" Milla asked, concerned, "Are you sick? Are you feverish? Because you are not making a lot of sense."

"No, I'm a Time Lord," Surgeon sighed, "We're just kind of like that 24/7. Well, all the good Time Lords are. ANYWAY, Travellerverse! It's a world overrun by these evil aliens who killed a lot of the population, and a lot of what's left is in little pockets around the world. Before they were nearly wiped out, these guys tried to create something based off of the Ultimate Lifeform...which, ironically enough, is what led them to this whole mess in the first place. My friend, Markus Pederson...he's one of the few remaining results of those creations. And sometimes I'm there, to help guide him and Azima along."

"Azima?" Carol asked near-incredulously, "The chick at the perfume stand?"

"...Yeah," Surgeon said, "Sometimes the No-Zone is kind enough to cover for the two when it comes to the whole 'defending the whole world from evil' thing, so I sometimes take the opportunity to whisk them away to another universe for a sort of...holiday, as it were. I guess Day Trip #79 was in FP-084 and I never noticed. Well, we sort of didn't know, at the time. The only one of the three of us to know you were in a wheelchair was me. The trip was in FP-084, in Shang Mu, for a bit of a shopping day. I let them mess around while I stayed in the TARDIS to actually get some peace and quiet, and...well, I suppose they ran into you as well. I THINK I told Traveller about you, but...I can't remember. I think he told me all about it."

"But we ran into him," Lilac shrugged too, "So, let's see if I can remember myself..."

===-===  
Now, where was it even stationed? Ahh, yes, the Mayor Mart. Should have been Mega Mart or something along those lines, but Mayor Zao was being...well, Mayor Zao, and asked for it to be changed to Mayor Mart. I guess in hindsight it was a LITTLE out of place in our world, but I don't think anyone was really going to complain all that much considering the alternatives. The Mayor Mart was basically a big old warehouse in the middle of the city, with all sorts of spaces that Zao called "parking". It was MASSIVE, nearly the size of his own palace in fact, and the inside was covered from top to bottom with shelves containing all sorts of stuff! Food, clothes, toys, gadgets, even furniture! I never really figured out why so many people would need all that in one place, to be honest.

S: 'Signs of a sort of transitional phase, maybe? Perhaps exposure to the No-Zone has started to make things a bit more Western again. Those things tend to happen when the No-Zone's in town.'

C: 'Well tell 'em to stop. I don't exactly want our culture ripped away. I can get away with a lot more this way.'

S: 'You mean, sleep all day and steal all night.'

C: 'Yeah! ...Well, I used to, at least.'

Anyway, me and Milla had gone inside the place. When I had got my perfume, sprayed a little on me for good measure of course, Milla quickly piped up and told me that we had to take a little detour to the Mayor Mart. Carol had given her a sort of list for some stuff we needed for the house. Nothing major; just some meals, some new clothes, some ear-cleaning buds, parts for Carol's bike...and the note said that I had free reign to get ONE item from the store. Like, anything I wanted. So, of course, I was gonna go for the biggest, most impressive, most expensive gift I could hope to find! I took the time to stare at the warehouse we were in - top to bottom, white walls and paved yellow floors, with metal shelves holding everything you could really need - food, clothes, toys, cosmetics, medicine, everything! There signs above each corridor, showing what was where, and all around people milled around to the sound of tinny music. It was...kinda odd, actually. I mean, I knew this thing was here for a while, but I just got all MY stuff from stalls and markets, the "traditional" way. Then again, being in a non-traditional condition probably got rid of my rights to do this any other way, so...

"Wow...look at all this stuff!" Milla cooed, her eyes full of wonder and stars, "When did Zao build this?"

"Eh, a while ago..." I shrugged earnestly, "Thing's been here for a while. I guess I kinda forgot it was here. They sell everything here, I think. I wanna see what that entails. Plus, I'm looking for...something."

"What're you looking for?"

I paused a little. Milla's question actually kind of threw me for a loop for a few seconds. She was just staring at me, with her little sparkling eyes. Clearly, she was expecting me to say something AMAZING. Well, good thing I knew exactly what we'd ALL want. I cleared my throat, making sure to milk the moment, "...A sushi-making kit."

Milla then proceeded to produce the loudest, most shrill gasp I've ever seen her pull off, as she pulled both hands close to her face and here became literal stars, "...ohmygoshyes"

"Heh heh, that's what I thought," I chuckled, arching up and trying to tussle the little dog's hair...to little success.

M: 'Oh yeah, I remember that. She managed to just paw at my hair. *giggle* But then she...fell back into her chair.'

Yeah, that was fun. Not a reminder of my lack of legs, nope, no siree. I sighed, head clasped in my hands and I rubbed my temples as I waited for the now familiar feelings of uselessness washing over me, "Just...let's look for one, okay?" Milla nodded silently, starting to wheel me forward into the chaotic mishmash of people in the warehouse...market...whatever. Dodging in and out of the people, still looking at me with a sense of amusement or confusion or even fear. Like I was some kinda alien, some thing drifting through the aisles. I know, I guess I should've known better, I should've gotten over it by now...but I couldn't. It was only mere days after the incident. Even then it was a dizzying, fizzy whirlwind of events and circumstances and people from all angles. The only thing that anchored it all for me, it was...Carol.

C: ''Awww, that's nice.'

She and Milla took me in, understood me when no-one else would...but it wasn't enough. It didn't feel...like it was enough. Their smiles and their hugs weren't enough to stave off this feeling of uselessness, of being a freak on the fringe of society because my legs didn't work. It didn't matter how many times people told me otherwise, every vacant stare from some random guy who didn't know better...it hurt. It hurt as much as something like this could. I almost felt like I wasn't in my own body anymore, people were looking at me in THAT kind of way. I arched my head low, kept staring at the ground, waiting for the people to grow bored and go back to their own thing. I don't think Milla noticed, with only a quaint, "Hmm" signifying that we had reached the sort of aisle we were looking for. It was covered head-to-toe in cooking products - egg mixers, microwaves, coffee machines and more, all sorta jumbled together on the shelves.

"This is it. Now we just gotta find one..." I said aloud, causing Milla to nod silently and start scanning the shelves with a sense of determination I hadn't seen of her for a while. I looked too, scanning up and down the shelves, through the people just milling around in the aisle, searching earnestly for the item of my desire. Finally, on the top shelf at the near back, I found it; The Sush-ee 5000 Sushi Making Device, its box large and square and plastered with a calming blue wave pattern. I turned to Milla, "Look, I see one up there..." and pointed up to the top of the shelf, "I...can't reach it, though..."

"Oh yeah!" Milla cried out, "Don't worry, I can fly up there, no problem. Lemme just-"

"I can get it for you..."

We both stopped, turning to see who was speaking to us. Someone had approached us willy-nilly and was now standing near us, awaiting our response. He was...not from this planet, I could tell. Body-structure-wise, he was a bit like Azima, being taller and slimmer than a lot of us and with a head structure with a single eye attached directly to his muzzle. I remember he had some...uh, really, uh...beautiful purple eyes, fair-ish skin and chocolate-brown fur. He had his quills in a sorta, uh, two-step style, with two large spines with another set coming off of those. He wore sunglasses, indoors for some reason, and had a silver ring in his ear.

S: 'Oh, he remembered that, did he? Sometimes he forgets to put that ring in. Not that it means anything, but...'

He wore really strange clothes, too. A black shirt and pants, red belt, blue boots with red laces and a large blue trenchcoat that covered all of that. Around his torso was a bandoleer, to which a scabbard was attached. It was empty, though. Then again, considering the kingdom's rules on carrying weapons in public, perhaps that was for the best. Oh yes, and he wore fingerless gloves and a sorta handkerchief with a red and black pattern on it 'round his neck, I remember that too. I actually kinda remember that he was pretty funny-looking, even for the standards of Shang Mu. I was sitting there, thinking to myself, 'This guy a performer or something? Street Magician? Conman, maybe! He looks like the kinda stuff Carol reads in her trashy action hero novels!'

C: 'They're not trashy! They're ART!'

I tried to signal to Milla to stay away, just in case this guy was dangerous, though all that REALLY managed to do was cause me to arch out of my chair vaguely towards her direction. The person stopped slightly, as if slightly hurt by my assumption, and stopped in his tracks. Milla, however, ignored me completely and rushed to the front of this guy with stars in her eyes, "Wow! You look like an action hero!"

"Well, heh heh..." the person blushed, scratching the back of his head, "Shucks. That was nice of you to say..."

"Just who are you?" I asked, wheeling myself forward so I was between Milla and him, "What do you want?"

"I...just want to help you get that box," the person shrugged, "I mean, I overheard you talking about it and something I want is up there too, so..."

"...Oh," I said, lowering my defenses, "Oh, I...uh, sure. I mean, you okay with that? I mean I could Milla to fly up and..."

"No, please. Allow me."

The person walked over to the shelf where my sushi making...thing was. It was the very top of the shelf, a very tall shelf at that, next to an egg whisk cleaning kit and a retractable spool of wire. He jumped up, grabbed the latter, then the sushi maker and hopped down the shelf, landing with a clunk on the tiled floor. He walked back over to us and gave the sushi maker to Milla, tussling her hair with a smile on his face as she giggled and put the maker into the basket she was carrying. He knelt down to my level, "There you go."

"Thank you, sir!" Milla chirped, bouncing up and down.

"Y-Yeah, thank you..." I whispered, feeling a little stupid, "Say, s-sorry for assuming you were gonna...I..."

"What, you thought I looked a bit dodgy?" the person asked, to which I ashamedly nodded. His face twisted into sadness for a bit, but then it untwisted back in a small smile, "Eh, that's okay! I mean, I'm kind of more prepared for combat than day-to-day stuff, you know? Being overprotective, I assume?" I nodded again, "That's fair. A little cutie like that on your side, you gotta be careful."

C: 'That's not creepy at all.'

"Oh, where are my manners?" the person sighed, stretching out a hand to shake my own, "Name's Markus Pederson, but people just call me The Traveller."

C: 'Really? It's a CODENAME? Now that DOES sound like one of my stories!'

S: 'You have to remember, Markus comes from a world very different to this one. VERY different. Perhaps I'll show you one day. Combat is kind of all he's known - The Traveller being his codename because that's just what he heard for a while. Didn't know his real name until he met me...and even on my end it was a bit of a guess...'

I too kinda had a strange reaction to that. What a stupid name, on both accounts. Sounded like something from...well, you get the idea by now. I tried to make sure my face didn't screw up into something resembling a face of confusion and simply cleared my throat while Milla looked on, entranced by this guy and his...uh, quirks. I took his hand and shook it, "I'm Lilac. And this is Milla."

"Hi..." Milla giggled, waving.

"Lilac, huh?" Traveller asked, "As in, Sash Lilac?" I winced; I didn't like using my full name for introductions, never mind how he just knew what my full name even was. I nodded nevertheless and his face lit up like a tree, "Oh wow! Sash Lilac! Friend of mine's told me a lot about you."

"Wait..." I said, eyebrow raised in suspicion, "Who'd that be? And how'd he know that?"

"Well, uh..." Traveller paused, scratching the back of his head, "I'm...not sure I could say that..." he glanced at me, at the sour expression on my face, clearly untrustworthy of his words, "Uh, but rest assured! He is a fantastic guy, and a very smart one too!" he stopped, unsure of what else to say. We stared at each other for a good while, an awkward cough escaping his throat, before he cleared it, "Well...yes, smart man. So...I've, uh...heard about your...condition."

"Who hasn't?" I half-jokingly asked.

"It's really bad..." Milla whined, "They say that she can't use her legs anymore! And they won't tell me why!"

I froze on the spot. Maybe I should've told Milla about my actual condition, what it meant, how it'd affect me. It wasn't exactly a choice I quickly mulled over, I mean I took a few days to reach that. I was sitting on the couch, Carol comes in and we have a sorta discussion about it. She asked me, hand placed on my leg as a form of comfort, if Milla should even know the full story. I mean, I wasn't exactly hiding PTSD from her, my condition was obvious. I guess...I guess I didn't want Milla having to bear my burden of my condition. But at the time, I didn't fully understand. And I was the gal who was shot in the first place! If I didn't understand...no-one would. I sighed and said clearly that Milla must not know. Or, at the very least, she should find out on her own. But I was certain to let that come naturally. I.e., not from this guy's face. I cleared my throat and lied, "Well, it's one of those things that can be sorted out. We'll find a way."

"Well, if you say so..." Traveller said, scratching the back of his head, "I guess all I can say is, well, get better soon?"

I almost kind of laughed at his naivety, as if my own conviction of my condition being incurable was any better. I simply nodded and smiled in a fashion along the lines of fake, "I will. Thank you, Mr Pederson."

"You're welcome, ma'am!" he chirped, a grin on his face and saluting me in the most dorkish way possible. He stood like that for a good couple of seconds, before suddenly jumping like he'd be stung by a wasp or something, "Ah, shoot! I need to get Azima's, uh, makeup stuff! I better bolt. I'll see you around, yeah?"

"Goodbye, Mr Traveller, Sir!" Milla chirped, waving to him. He gave a short wave back and catapulted himself down the corridor, turning like a stunt bike at the end and rushing left towards the makeup and hygiene aisle. I breathed a sigh of relief - I wasn't really sure if even he knew it, but his words came across as...insensitive. Innocently so, I mean I knew for a fact that he didn't mean any of it, but it still came across as misunderstanding my condition...a bit like everyone else in the city, come to think of it.

"Lilac?" Milla asked, slowly approaching me from the front, "Are you okay?"

"Me? Okay?" I asked, not sure if I was truthful in saying so, "Sure, I'm okay. Why?"

"Well..." Milla whined, "You're crying..."

I stopped, wiping at my eyes and staring at the stain on my glove. I was crying, ever so slightly but still crying, only now could I feel the tears in my eyes and that lump you get in the back of your throat. This all felt...wrong. People staring at me, Carol looking like she close to done with me, Milla worrying for me, and then this guy comes in and happily states to get well soon. Even though...that's impossible! Even the No-Zone didn't feel like it wanted to HELP me...just prolong...this. To say it was getting to me was an understatement, but I couldn't let Milla know. I sighed and mumbled, "I'm fine...I promise."

"Lilac..." Milla whined, "You would tell me if something was wrong, right?" I nodded, "...Is there something wrong?" I shook my head, "...Okay...should...should we get going?"

I nodded, "Yeah, that sounds fine," and she started wheeling me off towards the produce section to get some ginger. If...if only I knew that someone was looking at me through those horrible cameras they had everywhere...had some guard on the other side...relayed all this to tonight's entertainment.

Lilac's expression and mood had taken a turn for the worse after this, her lips trembling and her eyes watering as they did in her story. She was softly hugging herself, and had squirmed and moved until she was close to falling out of her wheelchair. Carol reached down and picked Lilac up, carrying her bridal style towards the sofa and sitting down on the sofa, still carrying her in her arms. Lilac nestled into Carol's arms, breathing and blushing heavily, seemingly calming a small amount.

"You okay, Lil?" Surgeon asked, "You've got that...look in your face again."

"I think I know why, too..." Carol sighed heavily, stroking Lilac's hair, "We're getting to...Joke Night."

"Joke Night?" Surgeon asked.

"Joke Night..." Lilac sobbed a little, "Everything went wrong on Joke Night...I don't wanna remember. I don't wanna remember..."

"Then don't..." Carol kissed Lilac's forehead, "I'll remember for you. I can explain this to him, if you want..." Lilac nodded, "I thought so. What d'ya wanna do? You wanna get some sleep? Or some fresh air."

"Fresh air..." Lilac whimpered.

"Okay..." Carol soothed, "Milla? Could you go give Lilac some company outside, please?" Milla nodded solemnly, slowly taking Lilac into her chair and wheeling her outside. The soft creaking of Milla walking on the floorboards got quieter and quieter, until it stopped outright. Carol sighed heavily and turned to Surgeon, "You want a drink? Coffee, Red Leaf Tea...some scotch, perhaps?"

"You don't drink," Surgeon reminded her, "You CAN'T drink."

"Won't stop me sometimes..." Carol sighed, "...Oh, okay, I'm gonna have some coffee. You?"

"Uh, same please. Black, no sugar," Surgeon nodded quietly. Carol nodded quietly and vanished into the kitchen to make some coffee for the both of them. While waiting, Surgeon turned out to see Lilac and Milla outside of the window. They hadn't gone far, just enough to not overhear Surgeon and Carol talking in the other room. Milla was playing with Lilac, playing pattycakes and giving her hugs, which Lilac was quietly, but happily returning. Surgeon shrugged a little; one would suppose it was to be expected. The events had literally only occurred one or two days ago now. Just because he saved her from wheeling herself off of a cliff didn't mean that all that built-up anger and grief was gone for good. Perhaps she was just REALLY good at hiding it...perhaps for her own safety now...

"Coffee's ready!" Carol shouted, bringing in two cups of black coffee. She placed them down, alongside a small carton of Zao-branded Milk, doubtless from the supermarket shopping that Lilac had mentioned mere moments ago. She placed herself down in the chair opposite Surgeon and took a small sip of her own coffee, "Mmm...good stuff. So...Joke Night. Where the actual heck do I even begin with that...can I swear?" Surgeon nodded, "Thank you. Where do I even begin with that shitshow?"

"Well, at the beginning of the night," Surgeon suggested oh-so-helpfully.

"...Yeah, sure," Carol sighed, "Well, you'd probably be wondering where I was thorough all of this. Well, after my time at the spa, which admittedly helped a good amount, I met back up with the two and we went through the rest of Shang Mu's shops together. We tried on clothes, we gorged on sushi, we drank bubble tea until we felt sick," she lowered the volume of her voice to a guilty mumble, "Worth it, though..." and then back to normal, "And by the time we were done with all the shops, it was finally time for the entertainment! I picked out a real good branch to spend the last hour or so of the night. The Crystal Club."

"Sounds fancy," Surgeon said.

"Heh heh..." Carol chuckled and scratched the back of her head, "It was, yeah. We only got in because of our credentials from Zao himself. After all, he didn't know we were still on the run from Neera, so we were kinda still his ambassadors, or whatever Lilac said we were. I...can't remember. I think we all did, you know? We just needed to warn the Magister from Brevon's attacks...fat lotta good THAT did. I bet his stupid castle is already on fire."

"Probably," Surgeon shrugged nonchalantly.

"Anyway, The Crystal Club was this biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig place! It was fulla tables and chairs with red cloth over them, tons of fancy food and drink, it even had live entertainment! Tonight was a world-famous and beloved comic, stand-up...guy. Called himself TeaHea, but most people just called him Zahl, his real name. I guess he kinda got into trouble once or twice for his strong views, but no-one seemed to mind. I never understood it, myself. This guy said some REALLY horrible stuff...and everyone just sorta forgave him."

"Sadly a very specific multiverse constant," Surgeon sighed miserably.

"But...what he did to Lilac...the things he said...the jokes he made! ...Look, let me start from the REAL early beginning..."

===-===  
Welcome to The Crystal Club! That's what it said on the doorframe, anyway. It was quite cool, really. All those reds and wood and metal things coming together. Never thought I'd be able to ever come here, not while I was still in my Red Scarves duds. This red scarf, all of the things it tells people...you know?I mean, I kind of DREAMED that we'd come here one day, with my bestest bud and the cutest pup you'd ever see. Yeah, I said it. But, I never thought I'd actually get the chance to eat with all these fancy folk, you know? Drink some fancy booze among the elite.

S: 'Huh. And here I was, thinking you'd hate that. All the dresses, the fancy talk, the strange wine from every corner of the globe...other versions of you would doubtless hate that.'

Well, not really. Visiting Mayor Zao's palace was one of the greatest moments of my life! And even if I hated it, I'd still put up with it, if Lilac got a good night out. You can't comprehend the nights we spent in the Red Scarves, sleeping rough under bridges, eating the most basic trash we could find. It wasn't the best life out there, of course I wanted something better! I just...didn't want all that pointless glitz that came with it. Anyway, uh, the place, yeah! The inside was beautiful, like I said. The inside was coated head to foot with red velvet; on the walls, on the floor, even on the tables! Talk about a classy establishment. All these tables were set up everywhere, with flute glasses set up on all of 'em, while little carts of grub came whizzing around everywhere! It was REALLY cool, and it was almost worth the eye-watering costs to see Lilac's glum ol' face light up like a neon sign. Milla's, on the other hand, went up like a Supernova!

"WOW!" Milla screamed, jumping up and down like the little kid that she was, "It's AMAZING! Look at how fancy this is!"

"I know," Lilac giggled, her face beaming and her chest audibly aflutter, "It's...it's beautiful! Thank you, Carol!"

"You're welcome," I sighed, feeling really proud of myself, "Well, should we get going? Dinner and a show's coming our way!"

Keeping Milla restrained and on her lap, Lilac nodded as I wheeled the two to the reception desk to get our table. Table No. 84, it was."

S: 'How fitting.'

Indeed. With a spring in our...uh, my step, we made our way our table. Despite the high number, it was quite close to the stage, a good leap and bound from one to the other. That's gonna be important in a bit. I sat myself on the leftmost chair, facing the bar on the right of the building, while Milla took the rightmost chair and Lilac wheeled herself into a spot facing the stage at the end of the hall. Amongst the candle lighting from the...well, candles on the tables, Lilac's face was softened from the flames. She had even done her hair up a bit to look a bit more fancy, to blend in a bit more. She...*ahem*...she looked really cute, actually. There...i-isn' anything wrong with that, is there? A girl thinking another is cute?

S: 'Oh Galifray, no. In fact, as far as some people seem to think, it's the better way to approach it. If you find Lilac cute, nothing wrong there.'

Oh thank The Great Dragon. I thought I was going...well, mad. Me, liking Lilac like a girl would like a boy, I...I mean I...can I tell you something? I love her. I...love Lilac. I love her, a lot. I don't why, I just...was it guilt? Was it because I abandoned her to die and it resulted in...this? Was it because we've known each other for so long, I know Lilac like no other? I don't know, and it's driving me insane! I...

S: 'It's okay. These feelings are natural, and you are still young. Just...take them at your own pace. Perhaps this ties into what happened here? On Joke Night?'

...It did. I'll get to that in time. I've got a few more things to mention first. We ordered our drinks - Lilac got a cola, I got a coffee, Milla some juice - and we began to wait for those as we studied the menus. We'd already eaten, so we weren't looking for anything overly expensive or massive, just something nice and small to pass the time before and during the entertainment. I took a single look at the dang menu and nearly fainted from the shock! All that money for such small dishes! How could this be legal?!

S: 'Well, one would think that you would know.'

...Okay, good one, I like that one. But still! Nine crystals for a single bowl of chips?! Seriously?! Thankfully, we managed to scour through the menu and talked with the other patrons to help out with picking something out. I think we picked out a large bowl of nacho chips to share, only came out to about...12 crystals? Jeez...a-anyway, as we waited for THAT too, we chatted among ourselves. I remember...I remember all of the horrible blank stares we both shared. Like we both knew we were at the end of our own ropes, but we didn't have the strength to tell each other. it was like...I could tell with Lilac. No matter what, no matter what we did, her mind raced back to her legs. About how useless she felt now. It made me angry, i-it made me sad...I wanted to help her so bad, but I felt so on-the-edge. I felt like I could snap back and ruin things at any point, from the sheer stress of it all.

Thankfully, our food was served before we could get too distracted about Lilac's legs again. We weren't there to mope, dang it, we were there to have fun! We each took turns eating a chip from the bowl, dragging it out and dipping it in the guacamole and chomping down with that lovely crunch...mmmmm, lovely. Much better than any nacho chips we had eaten for a LONG time! I think Milla REALLY enjoyed it, seeing as her tail was going into overdrive whenever I saw it. Lilac was also enjoying it, with a bigger smile on her face than I was used to. It was AWESOME to see her finally having some fun, even if I could still see something troubling in her eyes. I mean, a nice moment, ain't it? Three girl friends, sitting around enjoying luxury and eating nachos. It'd be a shame if some pompous, hateful, ugly, stupid creature decided to mess it up!

S: 'Let me guess, Zahl?'

...Yeah. And Neera. And Zao.

S: 'Please, go at your own pace. Take your time, if this is hard.'

No, no...I gotta get this off of my chest. It was Neera and Zao who turned up first, I guess. You know Neera, right? I know for sure I don't need to go over her looks, right? Panda? Purple robes, cold and disapproving stare? I see a nod, great. What about Zao?

S: 'Yeah, I know him. Little short bloke, wears clothing so loud he could render everyone around him blind AND deaf!

...You know, I was gonna say I hope there are no blind Lilacs out there, but...well, there is. Is there a Deaf Lilac, or something?

S: 'No...not yet, anyway. Let's hope it isn't for a while, at least.'

Anyway, you're aware of both, great. So, in they come, like it's no business and suddenly the music in the background is stopping and everyone is bowing before them like they're gods or something. Well, everyone except us, of course. I didn't care that much, Milla probably didn't understand and Lilac...well, Lilac couldn't even if she wanted to. Which she did, I had to stop her getting outta her wheelchair and everything. Zao I remember chuckled nervously, "People, people! This is really a nice gesture for me. But really, there is no need. Nothing special about your leader coming to see a show!"

"It is but a nice gesture, my temporary master," Neera droned, looking about the room with a squint in her eyes, "A formality that some among us have not partaken in..."

That was us. That was very much us. It was only here that I remembered the whole, you know, having to run away bit? Yeah, and it didn't look like she was happy to see us. I sat in my seat, sweating ALL of the buckets, trying my hardest not to be seen by her. I shivered intensely, freaking out inside, praying that she would never notice us, despite how obvious we were. In fact, as the murmur and the bustle of the area started back up, I slowly sighed, hoping this would mean things would get back to normal soon.

"Phew..." I sighed, "That was a close one!"

"Yes..." came Neera's voice from right behind me, "A pity."

"...Oh, dang it!" I growled, twisting to see Neera's disapproving stare from the back of my chair, "Alright then. Wanna get the cuffs, or you gonna inflict a little police brutality?"

"Carol!" Milla called out.

"Spare the gibbering," Neera growled, crossing her arms in an irritated fashion, "I'm outside of my area anyway, I couldn't arrest you if I wanted to. Even though I do. Besides which, you'll be pleased to hear that the Magister has looked into that metal your shellduck friend supplied. It checks with what he was saying, so the Magister has deemed you innocent in this circumstance..." Neera's grimace worsened as she approached my face and invading my personal space, "Although between you and me, you still resisted arrest, broke out of jail and struck an officer. So the moment you step foot into Shang Tu territory, I'm gonna get you."

"Neera, Neera, please!" Zao chuckled nervously, grabbing Neera's shoulders and slowly edging her away from us. My heart stopped beating like some sorta jackhammer 'bot for a bit, before Zao turned back to us, "Now is not the time for petty grudges. We're here to have fun!"

"Why're you even here, Neera?" Lilac asked, sitting deep in her wheelchair, "Shouldn't you be acting on this groundbreaking info? You're not Zao's bodyguard."

"I am for tonight," Neera huffed, "Magister's sure his normal troops can handle it, sent me over when Zao mentioned he was going for a show tonight. Call it a peace-supporting gift, as Zao himself has put it. To repair relations."

Zao jumped up and down in a twisted sorta pride, "Indeed! So, what brings you three here? Did your neutral party thing work out?"

There was a pause between the three of us on our table, not at all sure nor willing to respond to any of this. I mean, we couldn't tell them that Brevon had the gem, Torque was MIA and his forces were being repelled by some space cops, could we?!

S: 'Alternate Universe Police, Carol. Technically the No-Zone Anti-Paradox Action Response Team. Or APART, for short. I came up with that.'

Whatever! The point was, we couldn't tell them, could we? But then...then Lilac spike up, "I'm gonna be honest, no..." she sounded like she was struggling to get the words out, can't say I blame her, but she seemed determined to get the truth out, "Neera attacked us and..." I tried to shush her, but she continued, waving her hand around the table to refer to the three of us, "We were split up in the crossfire. I ended up running into Brevon, and..." She choked back a sob and finally finished, "Smashed part of my spine. Paralysed from the waist down."

"Oh my!" Zao gasped, "How awful! I'm so sorry that my little excursion resulted in injuries like this! Had I known, I would've called in some of my own force!"

"A nice gesture," Lilac replied humbly, "But trust me, Brevon isn't the kind of guy you can take down with what we've got."

"Well I'll look into this Brevon guy, and put him to justice for this!" Zao boasted proudly, before almost instantly changing tact, "But for now, I'm gonna enjoy my night out! It's Zahl tonight, isn't it?"

"Yeah!" Milla said happily, tail wagging, "I hear he's really funny!"

"Well, depending on personal tastes," Zao shrugged happily, "He's trying something new this time, he told me. Wanted to take his comedy straight from the streets, from a guy's daily life! Even asked if I could help him with it. And I thought ooh, that'd be a BIG honour for both of us, so I said yes!"

"What..." I asked, feeling a pang of fear in my gut, "What did you do?"

"Can't say," Zao's voice went temporarily sing-song, "Gotta keep the secret~"

"We best be getting to our table," Neera said, "Come, master. This way..." the two set off for their own table, thankfully far from where we were sitting, but she slowly stopped, sighed heavily, and turned back to me, "I...offer my condolences to Lilac's paralysis. May she get better soon." And then, she turned to follow Zao to their seats.

I growled in response, but Neera did not stick around long enough to hear me being REAL unhappy with her. Now I'm not a bitter gal...okay I am NOW owing to all this, but even at the time I was a bit angry. Yeah, angry. I guess my reasoning was that...well, it was Neera. She had just go through threatening me with a long stay in the dirtiest prison in Shang Tu should I ever set foot within it again, and THEN she turns to the person she actually hates and wishes her goodwill?! 'No!' I thought, '"How dare she, of all freakin' people, feel pity?! It's NEERA! She's probably faking it too, the panda witch that she is'. Perhaps I was just angry...or maybe my clairvoyance was telling me of just what was gonna happen next.

S: '...Probably anger.'

Yeah, probably anger. Anyway, the crowd was slowly hushing up, and I belted up too. Someone had approached the stage, and then clambered onto it. I don't remember his name or how he looked, but I do remember that he took a bow and then said the following;

"Ladies, gentlemen, people of ALLLLL ages! May I be ever so excited to announce the arrival of the King of Comedy himself, Mr Albert "TeaHea" Zahl!"

There was a loud, roaring applause from the audience, and me and the girls clapped and whooped alongside them. There was a heavy clomping as a second person came onto the stage, stopping with a wild flourish and a rose thrown somewhere into the audience. Mr Zahl had arrived. He was...uh, a jackal? Gee, I'm not even sure. Not even sure what a jackal is supposed to look like, really. He was really dark-furred, almost a sorta dark grey, with a snout with white fur around that and these really deep blue eyes. His hair was very wild and unkempt, like mine on a bad day, and he wore this really tacky green suit. And pants and dress shoes and a bowtie and all that stuff...wait, that wasn't just you, was it?!

S: 'Oh heavens no! Ever seen a Time Lord do standup? You'd pass out from the pain of it all soon enough!'

Well anyway, Zahl was really eager to get on stage, it seemed. He bowed also, and clapped his hands together in anticipation. He spoke, with this really deep and almost sleazy sorta voice;

"Thank you, thank you!" "Welcome to the show! I say, let's get on with proceeding as quickly as possible, shall we? Can't take this slowly and stupidly. We're not ALL hedgehogs here, are we?"

The joke was met with uproars of laughter from the crowd. Granted I REALLY didn't get it. Like...what's a hedgehog? Anyway, I decided to be nice and laugh along in a fake manner, while Milla seemed to actually enjoy the joke and giggled along. With the tone set, Zahl set to work. The jokes went on for a good hour or so, starting off slowly, but then getting funnier and funnier. Don't remember any specifically, I...try to forget Joke Night, but people were howling with laughter every step of the way. Even I was starting to get into it, I gotta admit. There were all laughing at these stupid, stupid jokes and I was laughing along with 'em, in between mouthfuls of Nachos, obviously. Soon, however, his shtick wound to a close. Lights were dimming, food was scarce and I was feeling full and happy.

"Thank you, thank you!" Zahl chuckled, bowing again, "Now, for the final part of my sketch tonight. Here, I'm gonna be taking the daily problems I've seen people get into, and joke about them. Let the daily struggles melt away with laughter!" Several shouts of encouragement rang out from the crowd, Lilac included, while I just sorta held my breath in a fearful anticipation, "Great, let's go! Ahem. Now, what about car radios, ey? Not the normal ones, nah, I mean those weird ones from cars that came from the Hermanic areas, you know? The ones that try to be cute and clever that look like the gearstick and then they put them NEAR the gearstick! What use are those things? What if you mix them up!? You're driving along and Zao's charity song comes on and next thing ya know you're parked in the middle of the freeway!"

Another roar of laughter from the crowd. Even Zao laughed at that one. Neera didn't, though. I mean why would she? It was Neera. Lilac was very amused by it, clapping along and chirping out, "Funny as ever, Mr Zahl!" that was really drowned out by the roar of the people. My response was a little...less refined.

"Yeah, woo! Go Zahl!"

"Heh, worked on that one all week!" Zahl chuckled, "Alright, folks! Let's kick it into high gear! Now, has anyone ever noticed that our level of tech is a bit, to put it politely, battynuggets?! We're using ancient mystical energy and robot people alongside VHS tapes and ceremonial armour! I mean where's the logic in that? What are our greatest scientific discoveries recorded on? Like' Ey Mike, I've managed to to discover a new element!' 'That's fantastic! 'Ere, let me quickly jot it down on the flint!" He mimed chiselling something into a wall, then paused, "DING! DING! DING! ...Dang it, made a spelling error. Anyone got some tipex?"

More laughter from the crowd, with Lilac once again being reserved, while I was just getting a little bit too into it. Lilac giggled, "This is great, more please!"

"Yeah, more! MORE!" I screamed.

"Ooh, eating out the palm of my hand..." I heard Zahl mutter under his breath, "Ooooh yes. Alright, people! Time for the big ones! Here we go! Now then, supermarkets. Now don't worry, I'm gonna go somewhere with this. See, okay, I get the point of them. They're big places to sell lots of stuff at lower prices for the common folk. 'Shelves stacked to the sky with value', they say! Except...they're kind of literal. Those shelves go on forever, VERTICALLY. I mean it's fine if you're able to stand on two legs and climb. Unless you're a dragon with no legs stuck in a wheelchair, then even hopping won't get you nowhere!"

Across the hateful guffaws of the audience, I heard Lilac's heart shatter in two. I laughed, ever so slightly, before I realised just what was happening. It was Lilac! That freak was joking about Lilac! She uttered a little whisper, "...W-Wait...what?"

I wasn't far behind, "Yea-WAIT WHAT?! NO!"

Both our emotions began to run high, but Zahl continued, "Heck, I came across a poor widdle dragon in a wheelchair, you know. Poor girl was pointing to something on the top shelf in the supermarket and said she wanted a boost. So I gave her a chocolate bar and sent her on her way!"

"C-Carol...what's he..." Lilac stammered, slowly losing composure. I saw her...I saw her hands shivering despite the warm tones as she lost grip ever so slightly on her wheelchair's handlebars. And all the while, people were still laughing at the joke, looking towards Lilac and laughing some more! Did they find this funny?! Did they find my girl's suffering funny?!

I lept up out of my seat, "ZAHL WHAT'RE YOU DOING?! STOP IT!"

"Nah, little girl, I'm on a roll!" Zahl chuckled, "Unless you wanna come up here, have a spine and a half to beat me. Hell, you NEED that extra half of a spine to stand up straight!"

Another hateful roar of mocking laughter poured from the freaks allllll around us. They never stopped, only pausing to eat some stupid shrimp or drink some stupid champagne, and then resumed their chortling. Desperate, Lilac wheeled herself forwards, slamming into the stage at high speed and throwing her onto it without the wheelchair. She crawled, pitifully, towards Zahl as the laughter increased. She crawled over to Zahl and got into a sitting position, "STOP IT! You can't just make jokes about that, about me! About what I'm going through! I've lost all feeling in my legs! I'll never walk again! You don't understand how this all feels..."

"Yeah, but..." One of the those in the crowd...S-SPOKE UP- "It's funny..."

FUNNY?! IT WAS FUNNY, WAS IT?! THOSE YELLOW-LIVERED COWARDS SHACKED UP IN SOME RITZY HELLHOLE EATING FISH CRAP AND DRINKING GLORIFIED ALCOHOLIC SPARKLING WATER! THEY COULDN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IT WAS LIKE BEING IN THE RED SCARVES AND HAVING TO-

S: '"CAROL! Please, calm yourself. It's okay, it's okay, I got you. Just breath, breathe in...and out. In...and out. There we go. Better?'

B-...B-Better. I-I'm sorry I-I didn't know what got into me. It's just this...this event. Joke Night! The nerve of these hypocrites to think the suffering of someone was funny! Just because she was a Red Scarf! Just because she was different! Still, at least someone came to our defence.

"I say, Mr Zahl!" Zao got out of his chair, red in the face with anger and disgust, "This is very out of order! This isn't funny, it's just laughing at someone with less than we have!"

It didn't take long for Zahl to turn and respond, "What? It's not like you didn't help me find the perfect joke or the such!"

"But this isn't funny!" Zao roared furiously, "Oh, I knew I shouldn't have let you look over the cam footage in the city!"

I turned to Zao and shrieked, "WHAT?!"

"I'm sorry!" Zao threw his hands up in near-surrender, "He asked me for footage so he could see what affects people on a daily basis! I didn't know this was going to happen!"

"Ahh, come on, kid!" Zahl batted at Lilac in a mock-joking manner, "Laugh at the pain! Laughter is the best medicine...well, sorta. I doubt you'll regrow your spine even if you laugh like a simpleton. Though considering your reaction to all this, you never had much of one to begin with, so having it shot through is barely a loss!"

More laughing, more mocking, more EVERYTHING. I couldn't take it, angrily blaring out what I think was supposed to be speech to get them all to stop. To DEMAND them all to stop. But nothing. Lilac, stuck on stage, could only scream out to the braying crowd, "No! Stop it!" she screamed louder, but nothing, "STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" She stopped, cowering in the face of the crowd, shielding herself with her arms, so close to crying, "Stop laughing at me..."

Finally, I don't know where, but I snapped. My hands balled into fists so hard that I dug into the palms of my hands with my own claws. My eyes glazed over and alllll I could see was red. I was unthinking, almost completely consumed by this rage. I gritted my teeth, screamed, "ZAAAAAAAAAHHHLLLLL!" and bounded towards the creep with the speed of Lilac's Dragon Boost. Then suddenly WHAM, I collide with the man and knock him to the floor. I body slam his chest, get to my knees and then start beating the crap outta him! Punching him this way and that, over and over, spreading teeth and blood all over the stage floor. The crowd was gasping and screaming for mercy, but I didn't hear it. Any of it. All the while, I screamed, "YOU THINK IT'S FUNNY, HUH?! YOU THINK HURTING OTHERS IS FUNNY?! WELL HAVE SOME OF IT, YOU SICK CREEP!"

"CAROL TEA, STOP THIS NOW!" Neera got up on stage, trying to wrench me away from Zahl's half-beaten body, "Or I will have no chance but to-"

"SHUT UP!" came my mindless response, elbowing Neera in the mouth to another round of fearful gasps from the crowd and continuing to whale on the man, "YOU SCRAP OF GARBAGE, I'M GONNA MAKE SURE YOU REGRET ALL OF THIS, YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Jeez..." Zahl coughed up blood and a single tooth, "Can't take a joke, can you?"

I silenced him with a final punch to the face that caved in his nose and knocked him out cold. I was gonna continue to go to town on his body, but Lilac screamed, "Carol! That's enough!" I stopped. I slowly turned to see her, fear in her eyes, "You gotta stop! I think...I think he's had enough."

I calmed, if only ever so slightly. My vision returned to a gruesome sight; Zahl toothless and unconscious on the floor, my hands covered in his blood, more blood and teeth scattered across the floor, and Lilac lying on the stage, her face a wreck. I slowly, angrily got to my feet and walked over to Lilac, "Had enough?! Assholes like him can never have enough! Not with the things he JUST. SAID!" I paused, seemingly only for dramatic effect before, "...We're going home."

"But, Carol-"

"I SAID WE'RE GOING HOME, DAMN YOU AND YOUR STUPID CRIPPLED LEGS! I've had it up to HERE with how useless you've become! You ran off to fight Brevon, ALONE. And then you ended up just trusting THREE psychos, Lilac! THREE! It's a miracle they didn't snap your neck there and then, with how dangerous that would've been! I've had it, Lilac! You were crazy to abandon me and run off, now look at you. Confined to a wheelchair, the butt of a joke, WORTHLESS! I...I..." And then it allll came crashing down. I stopped, trailing off. What did I do? What the hell did I just do?! I screamed, I shouted, I...I called her worthless. I made it sound like even I was giving up on her. I saw her face. It didn't even twist into a crying sneer, like I thought it would. Instead, it went totally blank. No expression, except a small frown. Like a part of her just died inside. My insides went cold and my brain went haywire as everything was processed, "Oh no. No. Nonono! Lilac I'm sorry I didn't mean that. I didn't mean ANY of that! I-"

"Just take me home."

"...What?"

"Go on then!" Lilac screamed bitterly, "Take me home! Get these freaks away from me!" She pointed to herself, "GET THIS FREAK AWAY FROM THEM!"

"But-"

"Carol...please..."

"...Okay..." I whimpered, so suddenly terrified and saddened. I got to my feet, grabbed Lilac and slowly put her back in the wheelchair, "W-We'll go home. I'll make us some sushi, we'll have some coffee, make sure all this is forgotten, alright?" Lilac said nothing, "I said, alright?" Lilac still said nothing. My ears drooped "...Oh boy..."

I grabbed the wheelchair, slowly quickly and quietly trundled Lilac outside and down the street towards the bus stop, Milla in tearful pursuit. The crowd, deathly silent since I stopped whaling on Zahl, sprang back up again.

"You Red Scarf freaks of nature..."

"Look at you, beating the teeth out of that poor man!"

"Even if the joke was in bad taste, that's no way to behave. Did you lot get raised in a cave?"

"Get out of here, you savage! And take your stupid crippled friend with you! None of you are even welcome here again! EVER!"

The night was...was cold as we trudged towards the stop. Even my copious amounts of fur did little to combat the cold, but I didn't care. The last bus back to the valley was ready to go, so I wheeled Lilac over as quickly as possible, screaming at myself. For everything; for losing my temper, for attacking Zahl, for screaming at Lilac...if I knew what my outburst would lead to, I...I-I...

S: 'It's okay, Carol. You've gotten this far. Take your time.'

Th-thank you, thank you. I got onto the bus, turning to look at both girls. Neither would look at me anymore, not after that. I could only barely hear Zao and Neera run out of the club and yell from outside the doorway.

"...Oh no. I didn't mean for all of this! I gotta apologise!"

"No. These girls are criminals, Mr Zao. They must suf-"

"Oh SHUT UP you miserable old buzzard!" Zao had snapped at Neera, and began to bound down the cobblestone path towards the bus, "Hey! Come back! I'm sorry!"

But I refused. We only got on the bus and started the long, silent trip home.


	11. Chapter 11: Advanced Warfare

"So..." Carol sighed, slowly calming herself from the painful retelling, shifting in her seat so that she was upright again, "That was Joke Night."

"Blimey..." Surgeon sighed heavily, shifting himself, "That was...well, I can sort of see how it all led to this. Stuff like this tends to accelerate quickly, after all."

"You're not kidding," Carol grumbled, "It was only a few days ago that this happened. What're we gonna do? How is Lilac gonna recover from this?"

"I..." Surgeon started, but stopped, "It's complicated. Very complicated. Look, perhaps we should just finish this story, see where we got up to and where we have to go. Let's get Lilac back in, yeah?"

"If you say so..." Carol shrugged, then arching up and calling out, "Lilac! Could you come here a sec?"

There was that damned squeak sound as Lilac was wheeled back into the room, Milla at the handles of course. She was a wreck; her face was puffy, her eyes bloodshot, dry tears in near-visible streams down her face. It was clear that she had broken down crying while playing with Milla - had she heard everything Carol said? The intro, Joke Night, how she found her attractive? All of it?! Carol stopped to collect her thoughts, "Well...hi."

"Hello," came Lilac's deadpan reply, "I know what you're thinking. I'm fine."

"I don't know..." Milla whined, "I...she's not..."

"It's okay," Surgeon reassured, "It's going to be fine. We'll take it one step, one day at a time if need be. Now, I know this isn't exactly what you want to hear, but...well, should we finish this little story? Should we...get to where you...uh..."

"Tried to wheel myself off a cliff?" Lilac asked, to which Surgeon shakily nodded. She sat silent for a few seconds, hands clasped on her chin before she wiped the dry tears from her cheeks and gave a hearty sigh, "Well, we got this far, didn't we? I might as well finish it off, see how we even got here. Really, there's not much to talk about anymore. Like, one more thing. Yesterday evening. That's when this final chapter started..."

===-===

It was evening. The sun was slowly setting behind me, and it cast me in this, I guess beautiful orange light. Not that I was even paying attention to...well, to any of it. I could've seen the orange light slowly creep across the floorboards to be replaced by darkness and the white string of the moonlight, but...I didn't. I didn't want to, really. I just...wanted to die. To shield myself from the world that mocked me. To just...sit there. Do nothing. And that's what I did. For days and days, I would just sit on one place in the treehouse, in the corner. Never moving, never speaking, barely eating the food that Carol left out for me. I said nothing to her since the incident at...at Joke Night. I think Milla barely said anything either. I dunno, I wasn't paying attention, not really. The only thing I remember was...sitting there, stewing in my own hatred. At Zahl, at Carol, at the world, at myself. Staring down at the bowl of noodles Carol had left out for me, face devoid of feeling, brain devoid of emotion.

I mean, I guess that explains how I'm more...well, you know. I like to extrapolate on things now. Get a bit more verbose. A-And stuff.

C: 'I know, it's weird. It's really weird.'

Well, I kind just...do it, now. Perhaps all that time spent sitting in one spot, doing nothing and eating nothing, gave me time to think. Even if I didn't WANT to think. I don't think either Carol or Milla really understood just what sort of effect Joke Night had on me. Zahl cracking those wretched jokes, the people laughing on cue. I knew what kind of people roamed this world...

S: 'I must admit, I agree. Almost gives the ungrateful rabble from Bygone Island a run for their money.'

Thousands and thousands of people, all laughing at me for something I couldn't help, something alien to them but debilitating to me. No sympathy, no pause to consider how this affected me. And it'd only get worse from here on, people staring at me and treating me as beneath them. It left me...catatonic. Well, near it. Already locked inside a body that barely functioned, now I was locked inside a mind that didn't want to function. Unwilling to move, unwilling to speak or eat or even think. I felt hollow, like someone had just jabbed this big straw in my head and sucked everything out. So empty, so cold, so...dead inside. Zahl made me less than a person, and for what? A mindless joke or two? This stupid wheelchair?

M: 'But...you were still alive, right?'

This wasn't living, Milla. I'm gonna be honest...it was HELL. A hell I didn't think I could escape. At least, for a few hours more. Carol would try to get me to bed, try to get me SOME rest. I barely saw her pad towards me, on tip-toes so that she didn't make that much noise. I saw her face, one twisted into sorrow..."

'C: 'Well, yeah! I hated Zahl as much as anyone else, Lilac! How he twisted your condition for a few cheap jokes that weren't even that funny! I didn't know what you were going to do after something like that! I know you, Lilly. I know when you have that resolve behind you, that push forward. That drive to keep going. You had it all the time in the Red Scarves, especially when we left that band of killers behind for good! And yet, after Joke Night - heck, even after that stupid Zone Cop first wheeled you in - I couldn't see that spark. It'd gone, and I was terrified what you'd be like with no drive. I guess I found out soon enough. I tried so hard to get you to bed, to get some sleep. You said nothing. You did nothing. You barely breathed in my direction! I...I didn't know what to do. So I left you there, and went to bed myself.'

Yep. And it gave me the drive needed to...well, you know.

C: 'Dang it...'

Carol, it's not your fault. Well, not directly. I don't really think anyone was expecting any of this to unfold in the way that it did. It wasn't a concern for us, and seemingly isn't for other...uh, me's and you's across this weird multiverse we're just sorta in now, I guess. I had no idea what to do now. Could anyone from the other worlds help? WOULd they? Were they all like that War creature, so cold and bitter because life didn't deal them a fair hand?

Hours passed, the room went dark and soon I was almost in total blackness. I sat, staring at the floorboards. Silent and unmoving. It took those many hours of debilitating thought, but soon enough, I was there. There was no point to this, to ANY of this, anymore. My warped mind made it all seem so hopeless. I thought Carol hated me - after all, she did kinda snap at me and call me worthless but a few days ago. Milla was probably scared of me - she never deigned to even approach me at some points. Everyone saw me as a laughing stock thanks to Zahl. So...what was the point of going on? Why continue this misery? It was time to...end this. Forever.

I waited. Just a little longer, until I was sure Carol and Milla were asleep, and then I set off. I wheeled myself to the lift, slowly and silently roped myself down, hitting the ground with a barely audible sound. Then, tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat, I slowly began to wheel myself towards the cliff. There were many cliffs in Dragon Valley, many more than enough to cause a fatal fall. But I didn't have the time or the patience. I needed this done, soon. And so, I picked the closest, up Parahan's Peak.

C: 'That one?! That's a really steep, craggy path. Even I have troubles getting up there!'

But I did anyway. The path was long, it was hard. But it was the fastest way there. The night was dark and light was scarce as I wheeled up and down hills, exerting all of my already-lacking strength. I huffed and puffed, grabbed tree branches to hoist my way up, even jerked my body enough to "jump" up rocks if need be. I was hungry, thirsty, cold and tired. My face stained with tears, my heart thumping like nothing else, my wretchedly useless legs stiffening from the cold and the mud. Even my tendrils, now just scraps hanging off of my head, whistled and tumbled in the breeze as I kept going. Sometimes I felt sapped of energy and forced myself to stop. I would sit there, panting, crying, wanting to just stop here and wait for the end. But no. That was too slow. Too painful. Too much time for the others to find out I was gone and...stop me.

C: 'Oh god...'

S: 'It's okay, Carol. It's okay. Shhh, come here...there we go. Hugs make most things better. Anyway, continue.'

Heck, at one point I fell out of my wheelchair and tumbled alllllll the way down the hill, landing at the bottom bruised with several cracked ribs. I could've just lied there, wait for nature or an animal to take me. But no. I wasn't gonna give up like that. Wheelchair wrapped around my torso with a belt, I slowly dragged myself up the hill, grabbing onto rocks and trees to get up there. It was painful. It was slow. But I made it up the hill and back into my wheelchair, setting off afterward, so determined I was to die in this way. Heh...sort of ironic now. But eventually, I made it. The top of the peak. A cliff face into the entire valley below. The morning sun lit it up something...beautiful. But it did nothing to warm my heart.

Numbness. A cold, empty, hollow numbness. That was all I felt. Well, from the waist down at least.

It was all I could concentrate on, sitting in my wheelchair and staring blankly into the Valley's golden sands. The sun was casting down on me, mocking me with their lies about what was beyond the sunrise. I watched the tumbleweeds and the animals of the valley play in the caverns below. Tears welled in my eyes, knowing that, far from the days where I could playfully chase them around the rocky spaces below, I would never be able to join them in their fun ever again. And even now, all but a week on from the event that caused all of this misery, I still felt sick. I still felt wrong. If anything, I'd gotten worse. Pathetic. Lonely. Worthless. Meaningless. At the mercy of what diety forced me into this status, laughing at me all the way. And now the whole planet knew what I was, and they laughed along with him. What was the point of this...this torture? This cursed existence!? I wheeled myself further to the edge, breath baited, heart pumping like a jackhammer. I was scared. But I thought, deep in my gut, this was the thing to do. Goodbye Milla, I thought. Goodbye Carol. Goodbye me. And good riddance.

But then...I heard a voice.

"Urgh, that was a mistake..probably should have left the paprika out of that last batch. Although...I think with a little soy sauce they should be fantastic!"

===-===

"And...that's it..." Lilac sighed, flopping near lifelessly in her chair, "That's the entire story. That's everything. Fought Brevon, got crippled, treated as nothing, wheeled myself to a cliff face. That's...it. At least until you showed up and...saved me."

"And how fortunate I was, too..." Surgeon sighed heavily, "That's the problem, really. With a multiverse. Every possibility plays out before you. Including the ones where you fail miserably. Seeing your body, shattered and lifeless in the caverns below...I'm kind of glad I'm not the Surgeon who had to see that."

"A little cruel..." Carol whined, "But...I'm kind of glad I'm not the Carol who had to go through that. So..."

"Regardless, I'm also glad that we know the full story now. Written it alllll down in my Psychic Paper, in fact," Surgeon said vaguely proudly, patting the pocket with the paper in it, "At least now I can write this up into a proper report and file it off to the No-Zone. Get some real treatment for stuff like this."

"To be honest..." Carol grumbled, "I'd rather we don't hear from them for a while."

"Well, it's for the better," Surgeon shrugged, "Lilac's depression won't just...go away. It's not that easy, not that simple. This isn't the end of Lilac's malady. Not by a long shot."

"Then it's a start," Carol said confidently. There was a bit of a pause at this point, with a few coughs here and there. Everyone stared at each other, eyes wide, jaws slack. Before long, Carol spoke up, "Well...what now? Like, we know the whole story now. So what do we do?"

"We go after Brevon," Surgeon said, vaguely grimly, "He's still out there, and ultimately, it's Lilac's destiny to stop him. The No-Zone boys can hold him off, but not for long. He's always proven to be a thorn in their side, with exceptions. But for that, we need Lilac. And don't worry, I know just the people to help."

"Gee, Surgeon," a dry wit noted behind him, "Your timing is just so spot-on. We only just got here."

Smiling amusedly, Surgeon turned to look at the being who just entered the treehouse. Carol arched to the side to look too, as did Milla who wheeled Lilac around to get a good view of the arrivals. Lilac's eyes simultaneously lit up and dampened. It was Torque! And it was...Lowell? Torque was in the front, wearing his shellduck disguise and carrying his blaster pistol, while Lowell was right behind him, rifle holstered on his back. Torque was covered in a few bandages here and there, doubtless from injuries from the base, but otherwise unharmed. Lowell, on the other hand, was unharmed completely, bar some bandages on his right arm.

"Lowell?" Lilac asked with a tint of fear in her voice, "What're you doing here?"

Carol's heart skipped a beat. This wolf, this damned wolf, with his burnt orange fur and beige trenchcoat, standing in the door. The same Lowell who...caused all of this tp happen. The one to main Lilac! Her rage started slow, but sure, "Wait, that's Lowell?!" But before long, she had flown headfirst into a rage. How dare he? How DARE he show his face again, after all he did!? She rushed towards Lowell, slashing wildly with her claws. Lowell did not defend, merely dodge, as Carol screamed in rage, "Get out of here you beast, you freak! You did this to-"

"Hey hey, HEY! Carol!" And suddenly, she felt some arms wrap around her waist and pull her back, struggling. It was Torque, wrestling Carol away, "Stop, stop! Stop!" he turned her around and grabbed onto her shoulders, "Look, he's not here to gloat, okay?"

"Nah, I'm here to...well..." Lowell sighed heavily. Lilac looked closely, at his face. It was reddish, slightly puffy, twisted into a look of genuine sadness, like he had been crying a little. He stepped over to Lilac and dropped to his knees with a heavy thud, "Lilac, for what it's worth...I'm sorry. I didn't know any of this was going to happen, you know? Didn't know Brevon would take my gun and...do...that. Markus...uh, that Traveller guy, told me how you looked back in Shang Mu. He said you looked really pretty."

"Awwww..." Lilac blushed.

"But also...really broken. Sad. Miserable. And...I was...devastated when I heard from Surgeon you'd gone off to kill yourself...I just...I can't say it any other way. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..."

"Oi, that's my line," Surgeon said, half-jokingly, "Well, sort of."

Carol wasn't amused, "Ooh, look at this guy tryin' to get sympathy points! Blech!"

Torque sighed, "Carol, no. Now is not the time for bitterness. It wasn't his fault, really. It was Brevon."

Carol's ears twitched, "Brevon? OH, right, that evil alien warlord."

"Yeah..." Lowell sighed, "Bugger stole my gun and fired on us as we were escaping the base. Hit Lilly right in the spine. Pretty lucky shot, all considered."

"With you out of the picture, Brevon was able to smash through No-Zone defenses and go on his rampage," Torque said fearfully, "At the moment, he's trying to charge his ship to lift off and destroy everything! He's still at large, and we need all the help we can get. You three are our best hope of driving him back."

"But how? My legs don't work..." Lilac sighed, signaling to her wheelchair.

"OH, don't worry," Torque said proudly, pointing to Lowell, "HE said he'd do anything - and that's exactly what he did. Over the past few weeks, we've been collaborating on something. Something new for you, Lilac. I think...you just might like it. Bring it in, Lowell."

"Aight..." Lowell mumbled. He briefly left the room, then re-entered, carrying a heavy and wide crate in his arms. With a grunt of effort, he slammed it down onto the floor, in front of Lilac. Leaning forward in her chair, Lilac opened up the box and peered inside. A heavy golden light flashed from the box, and a small smile creept across her face.

"Oh my...alright. Let's go show this insect what happens when he tries to destroy OUR planet!"

===-===

Neera screamed as she was sent flying across the chamber, hitting the metal wall with a mighty clunk. Nikolai sighed as the battered panda's body slowly slid down the wall and collapsing into a heap, before working his shotgun and opening fire on Brevon. The action worked with a satisfying ca-chunk as the next shell was loaded, and a loud bang filled the room as the pellets screamed through the air towards the alien menace - Lord Brevon himself.

Pellets bouncing off of the shield generator on his shiny new robot arm, Brevon snarled in a maniacal way and continued his assault on the two left standing in the Extraction room. This was quite the fitting place to end this once and for all, he ever so quickly thought; the Extraction room, where the Kingdom Stone was slowly refilling his ship's engines to allow swift escape from and following destruction of this so-called rock. To have the deciding battle between victory and failure, between life and death itself, in the room on the verge of it all? It was almost beautifully themed.

Undeterred, the two remaining combatants continued their attack on the warlord. Hiding behind pillars in the room for cover, they popped out here and there to take potshots with their weapons; Katherine, with her high-caliber sniper, already a poor choice in close combat hindered further by the small room for error, while Nikolai continued to blast away with his trusty shotgun. It was a particuarly violent game of cat and mouse, with both parties shooting at each other but hitting little. Brevon was standing in the middle of the room, protected by his armour and the personal shield built into the replacement for the arm Nikolai froze and severed way back when. It was segmented, and a bright orange bronze to match the rest of his armour, and had a holographic shield built into it. It blocked the pellets and bullet quite well, forcing them to find other ways to damage him. The remains of the other mechs he used were already in heaps of scrap in the background. This was, in all, the final battle.

Finally, Katherine managed to get a lucky shot on Brevon, aiming her rifle so quickly that even he didn't see it, and fired a bullet directly into the blaster that Brevon had been peppering the two with. The Blaster exploded into charred chunks, injuring Brevon in the process, though but a small grunt escaped him. Brevon eyed the broken blaster in his hand, NICE SHOT...", before tossing it aside and shoving his robotic arm forward. Small panels on the top opened up and more blasters emerged from the panels, opening fire on the two animals, who ducked behind cover as Brevon continued to pepper the battlefield, with both blaster bolts and boisterous words; "I MUST ADMIT, YOU TWO HAVE DONE WELL TO GET TO ME, TO GET THIS FAR. FROM UNITING THE KINGDOMS AGAINST ME, TO STORMING MY DREADNOUGHT WHEN STRANDED IN THE GLACIER...TO DISABLING ALL OF MY DEFENCES, EVEN DISPOSING OF MY BEST MEATSHIELDS. YOUR EFFICIENCY IS IMMEASURABLE."

"Well," Katherine ducked out from behind cover to smugly retort, "We do sorta have a cheat sheet! Heh heh AAH!"

She screamed as she ducked back into cover, one of Brevon's blaster bolts narrowly missing her head. She faintly cursed her actions, and sent a few blind sniper shots Brevon's way. Brevon blocked these as well, but continued his tirade, "NEVERTHELESS, YOUR LUCK WILL NO LONGER SERVE YOU. IT WILL NOT TAKE LONG FOR MY RESERVES TO BE FULLY CHARGED, AND MY SHIP TO BE FUNCTIONAL ONCE MORE. THE DAY IS MINE TO SIEZE."

"Then you must take it from our cold, dead hands, monster!" Nikolai screamed, chambering another shell, "We will not stop until we cease to breathe!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA..." Brevon laughed, his deep voice echoing off of the chambers, "THEN I WILL JUST HAVE TO END YOU QUICKLY. MY SPECIALTY..."

With a guffaw, Brevon dug two more of those cursed mines behind his back and threw them towards the pillars Katherine and Nikolai had been using for cover. There was a brief moment before Nikolai noticed the bomb ticking, and was able to disable it quickly with a blast of ice from his open palm. Katherine, however, was not so lucky. The explosion tore a good chunk out of the pillar, sending it crumbling to the floor, while Katherine was thrown by the explosion and landed in a smoldering heap by Nikolai. He dragged her behind cover; she was still intact, the pillar absorbing most of the explosion, but she still had chunks of fragmentation embedded in her torso. Nothing she couldn't heal, but she was absolutely out of the fight.

"Katherine!" Nikolai cried out in fear.

"N-Nikolai..." Katherine said weakly, "It hurts...but I'm still here. Don't worry about me, I can...guh, I can heal this. Just...get Brevon..."

"Okay...okay..." Nikolai huffed, slightly panicked, "Don't you die on me, either! Lowell would never let me hear the end of it."

"Heh heh..." Katherine giggled weakly, "I know."

Leaving her behind, Nikolai swooped out from behind the pillar to the smug alien warlord standing in the room. His face twisted into a furious grimace, he dug out his shotgun once more; "You are a freak of nature. You all are. The fact most of you escape without repercussion...is a travesty. If it will take me to place you in the ground, once and for all...I will do so."

"STILL BITTER I SHOCKED YOU SENSELESS, I SEE..." Brevon said smugly, stretching out his robotic hand, "BRING IT, INSECT."

Nikolai gave Brevon no time to pause, instantly whipping out his shotgun and firing a shot off towards Brevon. The pellets struck Brevon this time, ripping into his armour and parts of his flesh and sent him flying. Picking himself up and mopping at the blood exiting his wounds, Brevon simply grinned like a maniac and charged forward, arm shield extended. Nikolai, undeterred, fired off more shots towards Brevon, aiming at areas his shield couldn't cover; Brevon merely moved his shield around like a maniac, catching the pellets and tanking the stragglers with his armour, before closing the gap and grabbing Nikolai's shotgun right out of his hands. Rather than fire it off, however, he grabbed the barrel and swung it like a baseball bat towards Nikolai, smashing him in the side and catapulting the shotgun across the room and out of reach. Nikolai responded very soon after, swinging his fist with such might as to send air waves careening after from the speed and ferocity. The first punch caught Brevon square in the ribs, then another across his face, before the third was blocked from that infernal shield. Brevon responded with his own flurry of punches, some Nikolai dodged and others he took square in the jaw and chest, winding him. Knocked back, Nikolai responded with a drop kick to Brevon's own chest, denting the armour and pushing Brevon back. Nikolai took a brief moment to recognise the window of opportunity, and started to charge another ice blast, the cold mists forming a powerful orb of pure cold in his hand. He threw it forward, narrowly missing the dodging Brevon by a hair, before Brevon closed in once more. This time, he kicked Nikolai's hand away, sending him reeling, before he finished the job with a punch to the stomach, then a thump on the back, then two haymakers to the face, before finally picking him up and slamming him hard into the steel grate floor with a wretched iron crash.

Satisfied with his work, Brevon grinned in a manical manner and walked over to the floored Nikolai, slowly stepping on his already wounded chest with his heavy boot. He looked own, the blaster barrel emerging from under a metal flap on his robot arm, and aimed. The red laser site painted a small red dot on Nikolai's forehead, and Brevon guffawed, "WELL NOW, I GUESS YOU DIDN'T HAVE AS MUCH FIGHT IN YOU AS THAT MINDLESS WOLF FRIEND TOLD ME. HE ABANDONED YOU HERE, WITH ME, TO DIE. FIRST YOU...THEN THE FEMALE..." Nikolai remained silent as Brevon slowly pulled the trigger, enjoying the moment, "MEN LIKE YOU ALWAYS FAIL..."

*THWACK*

Brevon cried out in a stilted form of pain as a pair of wooden tonfas smacked into his face, catapulting him backwards and sending him crashing to the floor. Brevon got to his feet, wiping the green blood from his nose with his fleshy hand, staring at the maniac who had just dared to attack him. To his hatred, it was that infernal wolf once more, the one from the Thermal Base, and head of this worthless trifecta. He had his rifle in his left hand, the tonfas in his right, staring at the warlord and grinning maniacally. And then, next to him, another landed. He was a...wolf? Some sort of mutated wolf, in a tuxedo and white trainers, for some reason. He was carrying a weird widget in his hand, some sort of techno-stick with an orange diode at the end. And then...there came the little green alien. Torque. Green thing caked in orange armour not unlike his own. Hateful little creature. They too stared at Brevon and posed triumphantly.

"Is that so?" Lowell grinned, "Well, we always pick ourselves up off the ground when we fall. We need to, with creeps like you running around."

"I ONLY OFFERED THESE DEGENERATES A SWIFT DEMISE IN RETURN FOR MY FREEDOM," Brevon growled, "I DO WHAT I MUST TO KEEP MY EMPIRE RUNNING. SO, WHY HAVE YOU RETURNED, COWARD? DO YOU WISH TO DEFEAT ME, ONCE AND FOR ALL. I'VE WOUNDED YOUR MINDLESS ANIMAL FRIENDS."

"We know," Torque growled back, "It's just about what you do, isn't it? Wherever you go, your species spread violence and misery! If you're allowed to leave this planet, you will return scot-free to your empire. We cannot allow that!"

"And, thanks to a little help, we'll ensure that reality!" Surgeon smirked, "Got a little help from someone you hurt so dearly."

"AND WHO WOULD THAT BE?" Brevon asked, before looking at Lowell's sullen face and smirking, "OH, THE DRAGON GIRL. I REMEMBER. TOOK YOUR PISTOL AND SHOT CLEAN THROUGH HER SPINE. PARALYSED HER. LAST I HEARD, SHE TRIED TO KILL HERSELF. HAHAHA..."

"Yes..." Surgeon said, "Well, let's just say she hasn't forgiven you. But she isn't out of the fight quite yet. What you destroy, we rebuild. Show 'em, girls!"

Leaping back, Brevon only had time to register a "what" before another heavy weapon struck his face. This one broke what counted for his nose and one of his antennas, but at the very least he remained standing. And there, slamming into the ground with a superhero landing, was her. The infernal dragon girl. Same cyan clothes, same lilac fur, same old spark in her magenta eyes. But now...oh, but now, she was a dragon girl of the future. She was encased in a full-body powered exoskeleton, silver rods and pistons lining her arms and legs, two metallic tendrils adorning the scraps left attached to her head. Her hands ended in metal gloves, metal boots, blasters on the forearm plating, and more. She was staring at Brevon as a green cat and a cream-coloured dog came up to assist her - and her smile twisted into a sort of grimace.

She spoke, her voice a sneer, "Brevon."

"DRAGON GIRL..." Brevon said with a disgustingly false sense of friendliness, "AT LAST, WE PROPERLY MEET. SINCE CUTTING THROUGH YOUR NO-ZONE SUPPORTERS LIKE BUTTER, I KNOW ALL ABOUT WHAT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO DO HERE. OUR...DESTINY. AND PERHAPS IT WAS THEN CORRECT OF ME TO WOUND YOU IN SUCH AN EFFECTIVE MANNER. KEEPING YOU OUT OF THE FIGHT, AND ALLOWING ME TO BEND HISTORY TO MY WILL. BUT NOW, HERE YOU ARE, AS DESTINY WOULD HAVE IT. HOW SICKENING."

"Well, we got better!" Carol stepped forward, "You really think we'd just let you walk away?! You paralysed my friend! Made her life miserable! Made everyone hate her! I'm gonna make you pay, for EVERYTHING you've done!"

"Yeah, that's right!" Milla growled, "This is for what you did to Lilac, you monster!"

"A CHARMING RIPOSTE..." Brevon chuckled, aiming his arm cannon, "BUT MEANINGLESS. YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE TO UPGRADE..."

"Oooh, no you don't!" Surgeon bellowed. With a flick of his wrist, not unlike aiming a wand, he aimed his screwdriver-like device at Brevon's metal arm and "fired". A piercing supersonic shriek filled the room as the diode at the end lit up a brilliant orange. Sparks raced across Brevon's arm, before a mini-explosion sent the blaster segment flying and shorted out the shield compartment. Grinning, he turned to Brevon, "What, you thought we wouldn't plan for this?" and then turned to grab Katherine and Nikolai, dragging them off the arena with Torque and Lowell, "We've got the wounded. Girls? Do your thing!"

Lilac was the first in, roaring like a wild animal before shoulder dashing into Brevon and knocking him to the floor, and following up with a number of boosts aimed in his direction. He dodged one, causing Lilac to circle back around and zoom towards him again, catching him square in the torso. Carol and Milla rushed in afterwards, attacking Brevon with a flurry of kicks and phantom blocks. Brevon, silently, parried all of the attacks left right and centre, blocking a cartwheel kick here and deflecting a phantom beam there. Lilac was soon back and the three began to wail on Brevon, with kicks and blocks and whips of metal tendrils assaulting Brevon from all directions. He fought savagely to defend himself, digging out his poisoned blade and swinging like a ferocious animal, sending sparks flying into the air as he blocked a tendril whip and sent Lilac reeling. He then focused on Milla, tanking a few of her Phantom Blocks before grabbing one in her hands and crushing it. The outburst of energy hurt Milla dearly, as did the backhand from Brevon that sent a yelp of pain erupting from her. She tumbled across the ground to a stop at the edge of the arena, bruised and knocked out.

Enraged, Carol screeched and bolted into the frey, ignoring the cries from Lilac to calm down and get back. Brevon grinned; the injury of that little dog got them enraged, got them running scared already. A perfect way to demolish them bit-by-bit. Carol got in and caught Brevon in the middle of his chest, winding him and getting him to one knee. Carol then set upon him, slashing at him wildly with her claws, the sound of ripping flesh and the scent of Brevon's green blood filling the room. Brevon took the blows, crying out at some of the nastier wounds, but remaining in the fight. Carol, tired but far from defeated, drew back to deliver a devastating final blow with the heel of her boot. She charged it up and sent it crashing down - and Brevon made his move. Swiftly rolling out of the way, he whipped something beige and gunmetal out of his armour; it was Lowell's gun! With a single blind-fired shot, Carol slipped and fell to the floor, clutching at the new hole in her abdomen. Brevon chuckled, getting to his feet, grabbing Carol by the leg and throwing her towards the cowards treating the wounded, smashing into them like a bowling ball into pins. He growled, "IT IS JUST YOU ME AND ME, DRAGON GIRL. COME AND GET I-OOF!"

But Brevon had little time to pause before a raging whirlwind of lavender and gunmetal swung across his vision, dancing around him and delivering brutal attacks across his body. A kick in the chest, then a chop to the arm, a chop to the other arm, a tendril to the head, then a kick on the back sent Brevon reeling. He caught the faintest glimpse of the speeding dragon's body zooming across his vision and he swung at it. The blur changed direction to avoid the swipe, zooming around and giving him another powerful knee to the spine. Brevon grunted, feeling a deep fragile ache in his spine - the blows were so devastating, even his spine was giving up. Brevon continued to attack desperately, swinging his fists and blade this way and that way, all in a vain attempt to even touch the enraged dragon girl. But Lilac knew better. Brevon was strong. He was angry. He was fast. But he wasn't THAT fast, THAT angry, or THAT strong. No-one was. If there was anything Lilac learned of this, anyone could be broken. You just had to find the right spot. Her rage kept her running, her anger at Brevon ruining her and wounding her friends fueling the exosuit she wore just as much as the myriad of batteries that were strapped to each limb., She kept dodging, ducking Brevon's over-exerted swings like a mouse would dodge a cat, and getting in every blow she could, circumventing every chink in the armour. A kick to the arm here, a whip to the torso there, bruising Brevon more and more until she was sure he would not get up again.

Finally, Lilac got him open. Dodging a single gunshot Brevon fired off from Lowell's gun, she kicked it to the floor, before grabbing his robot arm and spinning with all of her might. The arm was ripped off, sending it flying across the arena, while Brevon screamed as green blood spurted from his arm. Lilac sensed the blood in the water, and went for the kill. Roaring, she wailed on him with a powerful combo; a hook, a straight punch, a roundhouse kick, a haymaker, and finally a powerful uppercut to the chin that sent Brevon flying into the air and back to the ground with a crash. He couldn't get to his feet again, and he was groaning in pain. He was defeated, but not out. Yet. Brevon coughed up some blood, wounded and frizzled, and attempted to crawl away from the monster who had bested him. But Lilac had one more thing to do, the coup-de-grace. Walking calmly up to him, grabbed his one remaining arm and delivered the monster of all stomps to his spine. A sharp, wince-inducing crack filled the air and Brevon's spine near split in two, and he roared pitifully in agony. Lilac let go, and he flopped to the floor, still screaming in agony as Lilac grabbed him and propped him up against a pillar. He huffed and groaned, barely getting out a, "MY...MY LEGS. I CANNOT FEEL...MY LEGS..."

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Lilac growled, her brow still furrowed and splashes of Brevon's neon blood on her cheek, "This is exactly what I felt when you shot me. A brief moment of pain, and a lifetime of misery and sadness. Helplessness. Just sheer, existential, AGONY. It sucks so bad, doesn't it!?"

"YOU PARALYSED ME..." Brevon said, his voice hauntingly chipper through the stress of the pain, "YOUR RAGE IS MOST IMPRESSIVE. YOU WOULD HAVE GONE FAR, IN MY ARMY. YOU COULD ALMOST SAY THAT I AM...IMPRESSED..." Lilac went to strike him, but stopped. The look of shock and fear across her face made it clear what she was thinking; what had she become? All this anger and rage, justified of course, but still. She looked so...worried for herself. Brevon adopted a smug look on his face, "AS I THOUGHT. YOU YEARNED FOR SO LONG TO DEFEAT ME, YOU NEVER NEVER THOUGHT AS TO WHAT YOUR NEXT PLAN WOULD BE. SO, YOU HAVE DEFEATED ME. YOU WIN. YOU ARE THE HEROINE OF THIS WRETCHED TERMITE BALL. SO, WHAT NOW? DO I DIE? OR DO I STAY LIKE THIS, DOOMED TO SUFFER FOR AS LONG AS YOU ALLOW? AN IRONIC PUNISHMENT, IN THE SAME VEIN AS YOU?"

Lilac stared at him, her face twisted into a subdued rage, before she sighed, "No...no, I...WE can't let you live..." she eyed the fallen pistol on the floor, by Brevon's side. Still loaded, she wagered. With a robotic swiftness borne from her exoskeleton, she reached for and grabbed the pistol before putting it right to Brevon's temple. His expression did not change, remaining a sneering smile. Surgeon and Lowell suddenly got up and approached Lilac swiftly.

"Lilac, wait," Surgeon said stoically, "Please think of this before you do it. Don't do something you'll regret!"

Brevon smiled evilly, "DO IT. PULL THAT TRIGGER. MAKE THEM KNOW YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN I AM."

Lilac continued to aim the pistol at Brevon's head, struggling internally. Memories of the other Lilacs flashed in her head; of War's uncaring giggles, of Drowned's terrifying looks. It turned to all those jeering villagers, still laughing, but now some booing and calling her a killer. She finally turned to Brevon, to see his face scarred with countless previous battles. Would she really become...like him? For this one thing? B-But this was Brevon! The man who killed a thousand planets, and could kill a thousand more if he was let go. He couldn't continue to live on like this, could he? Could Lilac really live with killing him if it meant saving countless others? Could she risk it?

Her gun-holding hand shook ferociously as she cleared her throat and began her monologue, "I could. Oh trust me, I could. Even if I let you live, if you spent the rest of your life unable to walk on your own two legs, it wouldn't even hold a candle to what you made me go through. The stuff I've read and learned, the things people have said and done about me...no-one but my closest friends came to my aid. It was hell. And you would never understand what it felt like. You'd run, you'd recover, you'd retire to your stupid empire and begin again, as if nothing happened!" Her finger came ever so close to pressing the trigger, with a grin of expectation on Brevon's face. Lilac pressed the gun to his temple, her mind racing and yet drawing blanks. Eventually, however, she sighed and removed the gun from his head, gently throwing it behind her, "But no. I've had a long time to think of what I would do if I ever saw you again. But I won't...murder. I won't stoop to your level. I won't let what you did to me define who I am! I'm not like War...and I never will be."

"HOW DISGUSTING..." Brevon sighed, almost disappointedly, "IT DOESN'T MATTER. AS YOU SO STATED, I WILL RETURN TO MY EMPIRE WITH FRESH LEGS IN DUE TIME."

Lilac's haunted stare slowly turned to one of smug defiance, however, as she slowly began to talk over the footsteps and scraping sounds behind her, "Of course...I'm not the only one out for your head. After all, what about the guy whose gun you stole? How do you think he felt, being so involved in all this? I mean...he's got it back, now..."

Lilac stopped and smiled a bit as a red laser painted the back of her head. Turning slowly to see who it was, she grinned further; it was Lowell, pistol back in his shaking hands, his face twisted into an enraged grimace. He was aiming the pistol at the two, eyes focused solidly on the green alien behind her. He spoke, his voice an utter, a growl; "Get out the way."

Lilac did as she was told, throwing herself backwards off of Brevon's body and skidding across the floor on her exo. The red laser pointer now painted Brevon's face, to which a scared frown began to creep across it. He could only throw his hand forward and let out a "NO!" before Lowell opened fire. The shot rang out across the arena as the .40 S&W slug hit its target in the middle of Brevon's forehead, carving a chunk out of it and even sending an anetenna flying, severed from the placement of the shot. A quick yelp erupted from Brevon as the bullet hit home, slamming back against the pillar form the force of it. The numbed alien could only let out a gasp for whatever little life remained before his body twisted and fell to the ground with a heavy thump.

At long last, at long long last, Brevon was dead.


	12. Chapter 12: A Leg to Stand On

It only took about an hour and a half for the No-Zone Cleanup Crew to turn up to the scene. If there was one thing that Lilac had to admit about these unhelpful surveyors of spacetime, it was that they were quick and punctual. She didn't even remember what happened after Brevon slumped to the floor like that. She only remembered the exo suit shutting down and then waking up back in her wheelchair. Surgeon filled in some of the blanks for her; as she had somewhat rightfully guessed, the strain of the battle, plus the strain from the exo suit wearing on her already broken and fragile body, was too much for either to take. The suit had not only flattened the myriad of batteries on and around its frame, but it had sapped Lilac too. She had tumbled to the floor, sinking into an empty blackness for a good while. While there she dreamed. Dreamed of unusual shapes dancing in the air. Of Carol and Milla cheering her on with high-fives. Of Brevon's battered and bereft-of-life body slowly sinking into the inky blackness, only to splash into a thick goop underneath her and to slowly sink into the ooze, never to return.

It would be quite some time until Lilac came to. Now she was outside, with the others, on a cliff just off of the edge of the Battle Glacier, Brevon's infernal ship the Dreadnought just beyond them. She was back in her wheelchair, a shawl of sorts wrapped around her freezing frame, the burnt remains of the exo-skeleton frame cooling off in the snow beside her. Her legs worked no more, once more, but for once she did not care in the slightest. The exo-skeleton, while still in its early stages, was all that was needed for her to get up, leap and bound. After all, she had mastered it in a few precious hours, though how she did so even she did not know. Regardless, it was at least a small comfort, for it make her legs usable again. It made life...possible. Not right now, though, the frame was too battered itself for that. Instead, she twisted her head around to look at what was now before her. The others in the group were still here, surrounding her. Carol and Nikolai, perhaps the strongest of the group, were helping random and scattered No-Zone Agents carry bits of technology from the Dreadnought into a sort of "space truck", doubtless for their own use and resource-gathering. A green tent was to her side, and within the open cracks of the tent's opening, she could see a stretcher. Katherine was laid out upon it, a No-Zone Medic that almost looked like Milla was attending to her wounds, while Lowell was by her side, squeezing her hand tight with worry. The Surgeon and Torque were overlooking the whole scenario, Surgeon speaking into some sort of device and Torque watching him casually. And finally, Milla was just being Milla, rolling around in the snow and being cute.

However, when Milla noticed that Lilac had come to, she sprung up and rushed off to get some of the others, "Guys! Carol!" Milla squeaked excitedly, "Lilac's awake! Lilac's awake!"

Before long, a good number of people came bounding across the snow to greet Lilac, with the No-Zone people free to continue hauling the tech into their own 'verse, while also cleaning up what Lowell and co left behind; broken robot parts, spilled oil, and so on. Lowell was there, with a wounded but stable Katherine propped up under his arm, a small weak smile across her face. Nikolai was there also, helping Katherine continue to stand. Carol and Milla were circling around the dragon with glee, while Surgeon just sort of...stood there with Torque by his side.

"Well, if it isn't Little Miss Heropants!" Surgeon was the first to talk, his voice full of pride, "How're you feeling?"

"Better?" Lilac shrugged, almost non-nonchalantly, "I mean I-OOF!"

Carol had quickly pulled Lilac up out of her chair and into a strong bear hug, "We did it, Lilac!" she cried out in joy, "We beat the guy, he's never gonna bother us again!"

Lilac shrugged a little, "Well, me and Lowell kinda did..." she looked over Carol's toned body, before noticing something on her torso; it was a bandage over her abdomen, poking out of rips on her shirt and clearly bloodstained. She began to panic, "C-Carol! What about your own wound? Brevon shot you!"

"Hmm?" Carol seemed confused about what Lilac was talking about, before she looked down to see the bandage Lilac had seen, "Oh yeeeeah, he did, didn't he? Well don't worry, he didn't hit anything important!"

"Actually it punctured her liver and narrowly missed her own spine..." Torque corrected sternly, glaring at Carol, "You're lucky that Katherine decided to use her blood healing powers to heal you and not just use them on herself."

Carol's ears dropped with a mixture of embarrassment and regret, "Well yeah, I guess that was nice of her concerning her own injuries..." she turned to Katherine, "Uh...sorry?"

"None taken," came her shrugged reply.

Milla, having now noticed Katherine up and out of bed, hopped up to her, "Hello, Mrs Katherine!" she chirped, "Are you feeling better?"

"Yep..." Katherine lied, chuckling to avoid the bitter pain in her torso, "Better me than you, after all..." Both Lilac and Milla began to stare at her, with a mixture of confusion and fear. Lowell too gave her a confused side-glance, to which Katherine slowly realised what that meant, "Uh, whoops, kind of a spoiler? I mean we avoided the mutation and mutilation, so...eh, the point is, I'll live."

"Thank the Great Dragon..." Lilac sighed, relieved. She wheeled over to Surgeon and...attempted to look cool, putting her balled fists on her hips, "So...who called the No-Zone guys?"

"I did," Surgeon shrugged, "After all, I'm with them. The main threat has been eradicated, and peace has been restored, and now we have to come in and clean up all the mess."

A quick change came over Lowell, his air of confidence shattered and he spun around to face Surgeon, though not before handing Katherine over to Nikolai to not injure her further. His face was showing he was freaking out, "Wait, what? Are you mad?! What about Zonic, exactly? What if he finds out we were even here?!"

Surgeon merely smiled, "Relax. I've got that all sorted out."

It didn't take long for the distinctive hum of the distinctive portal Zonic used to get around to bleed into reality, before the portal itself ripped a hole in spacetime. After a few seconds of the swirling purple vortex, Zonic stepped out, an angered grimace visible on what little of his face could be seen. This was perhaps the first time Milla got to see this Zonic person in the flesh - as before, he was a blue hedgehog, dressed in a red suit of sorts, with green and yellow armour clipped onto it and a strange helmet. He approached Surgeon, growling under his breath, "Surgeon."

"Zonic. You appear to be looking substantially more irritated then usual."

"Well, for a team we dubbed the Peacekeepers, you sure have a violent method of keeping the damn peace. Not that Brevon didn't deserve it, but..." Zonic trailed off before he began to glance towards Lowell and the others. A snarl spread across his face as he approached them and talked in a barely restrained manner. "So, what are you three even doing here? We told you, by mandate, to stay away."

Lowell began to sweat, "Well, uh, you see-"

"You know what, never mind," Zonic growled, lunging out to grab Lowell by the throat, "You disobeyed a direct order no matter what excuse you make up to justify it."

"Hey! Why don't you just get lost?!" Carol piped up, leaping up and towards the armoured hedgehog, "He knows what he did was wrong! It was a mistake!"

"Yeah, leave them alone!" Milla cried out.

Zonic would not budge, "We made ourselves clear. Your mindless little lupine acted out of order. Now your punishment is going to be all sorts of nasty," he gave Lowell quite the death glare, throwing him to the ground and digging out a trio of handcuffs - doubtless for the trio, "A few weeks in a jail cell should do the trick."

"Oh, that will not be needed, Zonic."

Zonic stopped, and turned in fear to see the person whose voice had rang out aming the team. With a soft clop of heels, what appeared to be a human female approached the group. She was quite tall, with pale skin and a mop of red hair tied into a large braid down her back. She wore a similar sort of clothing range to Zonic, a bodysuit of sorts. Only instead of being red, her suit was a dark blue, and the armour clipped to her a navy blue. Her armour was padded in a style that was somewhat ceremonial, like a general's jacket, with five stars on her lapel and white gloves. Her legs were likewise covered in padded armour to resemble navy blue trousers. She didn't wear a helmet. Zonic panicked and quickly got down on one knee, like a sort of courtesy, "L...Leader Zelise!"

"Wait, an Elise is the leader of the No-Zone?" Nikolai asked, somewhat dumbfoundedly, "That's impossible! The Elder Masters forbid it!"

"We don't listen to them, anymore," Zelise noted, "Besides which, I passed with flying colours. Finally gave an Elise the chance to do some good around here."

"And you're doing that by letting them free?!" Zonic cried out incredulously.

Zelise gave Zonic an ocular patdown, "Yes. No-Zone Rule #392 states that a higher member of the No-Zone can determine if an unscripted intervention is reasonable or not through context. They came back, yes, but they came back to help and resolve an issue. An attempt to rectify the issue that they caused..." she arched closer to the slightly more fearful Zonic, a disapproving look on her face, "And one I believe you attempted to circumvent purely because it would look good on the record."

"But Miss Zelise!" Zonic attempted to explain, "You cannot-"

"Go against every rule, no" Zelise sighed, "But here would be a good time to exercise some forgiveness. And perhaps for you to exercise some caution. The last thing you want on YOUR record is being demoted or punished by the heathen that ruined everything..." she pointed to herself.

"But, I..." Zonic attempted one last time, before he finally met defeat and arched over, "Yes, Miss Zelise..."

"Well done. Now, dismissed..." Zelise waved him. Zonic sighed again, and walked back through his portal - but not before he turned to glare at Lowell, in look that screamed 'next time you mess up, I'm gonna ruin everything about you' before storming off. Zelise dropped her more stoic look and sighed, exhausted, "Sorry about that. Ever since...well, that event, Sonics and Elises don't really get along. Anyway, it shouldn't take long to get all of this cleared up. The No-Zone should leave this universe and return to monthly checkups, as normal. What about you all, then?"

"Well, I'm afraid I gotta go," Torque sighed, walking in front of the trio, "I called my own people, they'll be down with a shuttle to pick me up."

"What, no!" Carol called out, approaching Torque with a look of shocked sadness in her eyes, "We only got you back! Don't go..."

"I have to return to the Coalition, make it known that Brevon isn't going to be an issue anymore. Besides, as long as you keep your batteries charged up, I'm sure you girls are plenty capable of defending the planet now."

"I...I guess. C-Carol, could you...pick me up?" Lilac asked. Carol looked at her like she had asked for pineapple on her pizza, but regardless she plucked Lilac up out of the chair and brought her towards Torque. Lilac spoke, her voice breaking and eyes full of tears of joy, "Thank you, Torque. For..." sniffing and sobbing, she arched forward and pulled Torque into a tight hug, "For letting me walk again..."

"Hey, it's okay..." Torque sighed peacefully, patting Lilac's back as she calmed herself, "There we go...when I take leave, I'll see if I can come back, check up on you guys from time to time."

"And, uh, us too!" Lowell said, "We're planning to keep in contact as well. It's certainly been a wild ride, and all."

"Just...gotta let us heal first..." Katherine groaned, clutching at the exit wound that was still in her bandaged abdomen, "...Damn, that mine hurt."

Nikolai turned to his side, "And you, Surgeon?"

"Me?" Surgeon pointed to himself, "Oh, I'll be off doing my own thing, as usual! Saving the world, serving the No-Zone, helping Markus, that sort of thing. I'll come see you too, don't worry!" he walked over to Lilac and held his hand out. Lilac reached out and high-fived him before she begun to clung to Carol again, "Heh heh, nice. Okay guys, time we headed back to the No-Zone in question. Got a TON of reports to write after all this. Would you like a lift in the TARDIS?"

Carol's head tilted, "The what now?"

"My TARIDS..." Surgeon reminded. Lilac twisted her head towards where the lynx-jackal...thing, was pointing. Behind him, a good distance away, was a medium-sized white cylinder with straight-edged segments on the top and bottom. A single standard door was plastered on the front, a small light on the top, and "TIME AND RELATIVE DIMENSIONS IN SPACE" on a plaque on the top, "I mean, how do you think we got here so fast? Getting the hang of an exo suit doesn't take minutes, you know!"

"Hours at best," Lilac reminded.

Zelise turned to Surgeon, smiling politely, "I would love it, Surgeon. Thank you for offering."

Lowell chuckled, "Yeah, we'd like it too. Much easier on our, uh, battered bodies. OOH, one more thing, though!" he quickly dashed over to Carol and Lilac, and helped the latter get the former back into her wheelchair. He sighed, and arched forward to grab the handrests, a sorrowful expression on his face, "Well, I guess this is it, Lilac. I...I do hope you'll forgive me for...you know."

"It's okay, Lowell," Lilac sighed, leaning forward and pulling him into a small hug, "I forgive you..." they broke the hug, and Lilac continued to stare at Lowell, a hopeful yet stern look in her eye, "Just promise me, next time you see another Lilac, even if she's having trouble...think before you take part. Let her run her course, even if it does her wrong. You know know what might happen if you intervene again."

Carol bent over to look Lowell in the face, "Yeah, I hope you learned some lesson from this..."

Lowell cleared his throat and stood upright, "Yep. Think before acting, got it," before a whistling sound caught his ear. To Carol's utter surprise, the group was now piling into the the small cylinder, walking through the doors and all into the ship as if it was a clown car. It was Surgeon who had whistled to him, and was now leaning outside of the doorway. Lowell jumped, "Oh, right! Okay girls, we have to go. Bye!"

Lilac called after him, "Bye, Lowell!"

Milla joined in, "I hope we'll see you again!"

Lowell flashed a small grin and then turned and bolted into the TARDIS, before the doors shut with a resounding clonk. The ship stood silent for a few seconds, before the door burst open again and Lowell leaned out of the doorframe, "Oh, and one more thing! Good luck with Merga!"

"...Merga?" Carol asked, tilting her head in shocked confusion, "Who's...who's Merga?"

Surgeon likewise appeared in the doorframe, his tone falsely jovial, "Nothing girls, haha!" he then turned to Lowell and grabbed him by the scuff of the neck, his tone scornful, "Okay now you're actively pushing your luck. Get in the TARDIS."

Lowell could only manage an "Aww..." before he was pulled inside. With another, final clonk, the doors to the strange machine shut tight. Then, with the top light pulsating and an otherworldly groan wheezing out of the contraption, it slowly faded in and out of reality. Winds were whipped up and brown leaves scattered before a final wheeze occurred and the ship vanished into thin air. With the ship gone, Torque said his goodbyes. There was a lot of sadness and wailing, but it was clear that Torque had more important things to work on. He said a final farewell and took the first of many steps to the rocket sent to pick him up. Then the No-Zoners finished their duty and began to pack up and leave too. They rode the space truck through another of their portals, before it closed with an otherworldly sound. The leaves settled, and the three were left alone once more. Lilac sat back in her wheelchair, lying back and sighing. It had certainly been a long day, and she was now drained from the entire thing. Carol slowly walked up to her, and put one of her hands in Lilac's. Lilac, after a brief gasp, returned the sentiment and held that hand in both of hers. Carol got down on one knee.

"Well..." she sighed, "That's everything, then. We won. Brevon's gone. The Kingdom Stone is back in the temple, safe and sound. You're okay now...right?"

"Okay...?" Lilac asked, before flashing a warm smile - the warmest Carol had seen since Mayor Zao's dining table, all those weeks ago. She turned fully to Carol, "I'm feeling better than okay! I feel great! I feel like I can take the world on!"

"So you're not as bummed out being in a wheelchair?" Carol asked hopefully.

"...Well," Lilac calmed herself and sighed, "It's...something I'm still gonna have to get used to. But with the suit for walking and running, I think I can adapt. I feel like...I can live a life now. A life that's all my own. With you and Milla, of course."

"Thank the Great Dragon..." Carol sighed, a small but warm blush spreading across her face, "So...what do we do now?"

Milla bounded up to the two, "Yeah, what now?"

"...We keep going," Lilac said after a pause, her voice fully confident, "Brevon's robots are still out there, and we gotta make sure we can get rid of as many of them as we can. We gotta destroy the robots, charge and upgrade the suit, find Serpentine, get back in Neera's good books, complete our mission, unite the kingdoms, make sure the Stone stays protected..."

"That's a lotta stuff, Lilac!" Milla cried out, almost worried, "Are you sure we could do it?"

"We could do a lot now," Lilac said, bringing the little puppy in for a hug, "We just gotta take it at our own pace, do it our way. I'm gonna get used to the suit, AND this wheelchair. I feel like I could...no, WE, can do anything!" She motioned for Carol to come closer, to kneel by the side of the wheelchair, and she wrapped her free arm around Carol as they admired the sunset - the entire day's events had passed by so quickly, and now the setting sun painted the sky a beautiful burnt orange, "It's just us, girls. Us against the world. Let's do it, to it!"

Carol quickly swung around and planted her hands on Lilac's shoulders and flashed a flirty smirk, "Together, this time?"

Lilac smiled warmly and repeated, "Together, this time."

The look on Carol's face was washed away as she gasped a little. She never realised how wonderful Lilac's smile was. It was...beautiful. Like the rest of her was beautiful. She looked so happy and warm and...cute? Carol flashed back to when she discussed that with Surgeon. How his face was almost joyous when Carol called Lilac cute. Like he knew what was to come. Well he was a time traveller, but...still...was there no shame in finding her cute? Perhaps more? Carol's blush spread across her face as she stared at Lilac, drunken from love, "L-Lilac..."

After a few seconds of ambiance, Milla suddenly piqued up, "Uh, Lilac? How're we gonna get home from here?"

And Lilac went silent, a shocked fear across her face.

============  
Ten Years Later

A shining city, bathed in white sunlight, situated in the middle of a lush jungle. The light of the sun bounced headlong off of the shiny white towers of the city, and showered the citizens below in reflected glory. The pavements were a pristine grey as people in fancy outfits clomped along, carrying bags of shopping or smoothies or other costly items. The buildings were skyscrapers, lined wall to wall with glass panes, on the bottom level showing shops with all sorts of wonderful and expensive items within its insides. A clothing shop here, a coffee shop there, some selling toys for small children and so on. A few restaurants also littered the complex, while red and gold walkways wove in and around the pavement, mostly under beautiful red canopies that covered gaps in the road and complemented the old-fashioned decor lining the walkways. Benches lined the streets as well, as well as the odd cart selling street food. There was an ambient noise of murmur, purchases and the playing of kids in the street, but it was all soon silenced by a mechanical wheeze just off to the side. There, a bright light flashing from the void, a while capsule of sorts erupted from nothing, fading into reality and landing with a clonk type sound. After which, the door on the front burst open, and a funny man stepped out. He was a jackal, wearing a bizarre tuxedo with bowtie, brown leather driving gloves and two white and red trainers. Even as people stared on in confusion, he took a big lungful of air, and sighed happily.

"Aaah, so nice to see this place again!" the man called out, his accent now known as 'British', "I must say, the rate of progress is stunning sometimes, isn't it? Come along, Janic!"

A new figure stepped out of the object now, turning to lock the door behind her. She appeared to be...a hedgehog? Indeed, a purple female hedgehog, eyes a glistening green and her quills shortened and spiked up towards the top of her head. She wore two earrings, one in each ear, as well as purple lip gloss. She also wore a black shirt, denim jacket, jeans and red boots with a red stripe on them. She tussled her hair back a bit and shielded her eyes with one hand, "Wow, this place is pretty...bright," she spoke, her accent also suitably British, "Where've you taken me this time, Surgeon?"

"Shang Mu, 2024, Planet Avalice, FP-084!" Surgeon said with glee, spinning in place like a showman, "Place is a marvel of commerce and cuisine!"

Janic continued to stare at the white city around her. This...wasn't right. Wasn't Shang Mu supposed to be red and old-fashioned? She turned to Surgeon, a look of confusion on her face, "Wait, wasn't this the universe where you had to intervene a few months ago, from our perspective?"

"Yes, that's the one! No-Zone interferance caused the progress of technology to...uh, sky-rocket in speed. Bit of a side-effect, that. But still!" Surgeon nervously scratched the back of his head, then lept into action and bound across the street like a child, "Come on then, there's a cafe and bakery that's just opened up around here! Does the best krullers this side of the multiverse, and it's not quite the world-renowned place it will be yet! Should get a table, haha!"

Janic chuckled lightly as she began to follow Surgeon, "Ooh, we hipsters now? Mmm yes, I liked this place BEFORE it was super popular. Which is right now! Heh heh..."

The two eventually slowed their pace and began to walk normally through the streets, Surgeon pawing at a map he took out of a tourist box and Janic following not that far behind, smiling. She quite admired Surgeon, actually. Heroic, silly, intelligent and yet still humble and not without his fair share of mistakes. The two had actually gone on many adventures before - discovering the fabled Train to Paradise, fighting Cybermen, fighting the Metallix, even landing on Bygone Island. In fact, it was that event where they met, and Surgeon saved her life. Well, his, at the time. Being another Sonic in the wrong place at the wrong time, and all. She was just thankful he shared some of his regeneration energy after being hit by the laser bolt. Even if the new body was hard to get used to, at first. But now things were different. She felt like a new, entirely different person...and perhaps that was for the best.

Before long, the two rounded a corner, and came across the cafe that Surgeon was talking about. It was a small cafe called the "Bread and Butter Cafe", of all things. It had a few tables and chairs outside, and was situated off to the side of a busy city square, an intersect where four other streets melted into a single, central meeting hub. Janic took a set on one of the tables outside as Surgeon quickly went in to order some pastries and coffee. Tapping her fingers in a rhythm on the table, Janic watched with wonder as the people of the city continued to go about their day. She thought that two alien invasions would have left everyone on edge, but it was not to be. They simply continued, so tranquilly and peacefully, chatting and laughing and sipping coffee. It was almost serene, almost safe, in a way. It wasn't long before Surgeon returned with the coffee and pastries, laying them out for the two to snack on. Janic thanked Surgeon, before taking her kruller and taking a sizable bite out of it. A sweet sensation rushed through her senses, and she smiled in an almost amazed way.

She grinned further and turned to Surgeon, "Man! I see what you mean now, this stuff's incredible! It's so doughy and sweet!"

"Nice, isn't it?" Surgeon chuckled, "A nice kruller, with just a hint of red leaves..." he took a sip of his coffee and leaned back in his chair and admired the view as well, "Aah, I'm so glad this place got better after that nasty business with Brevon. Even if it's not exactly as it started."

"Yes, you told me about that...I think," Janic spoke, her eyes darting around her head as the gears turned like crazy within it, "Dragon gets paralysed, almost offs herself, you save her, she gets robo-legs, they destroy Brevon, and everything's hunky-dory."

Surgeon chuckled, taking another sip of his coffee before staring into space and then going back on his word, "Uh, sort of. After Brevon was defeated and what remained of his robots were lapped up, things kind of went a bit pear-shaped. After all, the king of Shuigang was still dead, the Kingdom Stone was still ripe for capturing and people still needed...uh, re-educating about disablement with the healing baths irreversibly destroyed."

Janic shrugged, "Well, as they say, Rome wasn't built in a day."

"And neither was Avalice renovated in one," Surgeon sighed, circling the coffee in his cup, "...More like, well, about ten years. Bit of a hard thing to say, but it took Lilac putting an end to Brevon once and for all for people to start taking her seriously."

Janic flashed an all-too-familiar sad frown, "How quickly some change their tune, eh?"

"A feeling we know all too well..." Surgeon flashed the same forlorn look, "At least they had Mayor Zao on their side. After all, he seemingly got incredibly guilty about letting Zahl just hurl abuse at her like that. So he helped with the funding and then set about helping the trio...well, clean up. Dail was cleansed of his brainwashing ,Serpentine was tracked down and apprehended. Even when Merga came knocking, Lilac and co teamed up to put an end to it."

"How, exactly?"

Surgeon took a look at Janic's innocent face asking the question, and tapped the side of his nose, in a teasing manner, "I believe that is what we call Classified Information in the Zone..." he trailed off, then pulled back "Or, to put it another way, I don't know. No-one does. The timeframe where her invasion takes place is barred off to travellers, No-Zone or Normal alike. Obviously don't want a repeat of what Lowell and co did..."

"Makes sense..." Janic said, taking another hefty bite of her kruller and following it with some more coffee, "So, how did the tech levels rise, then? What did they discover?"

"Our tech," Surgeon noted, nervously scratching the back of his head, "Some of our stuff was accidentally left behind and the Red Scarves stole it. Shuigang took it from them, reverse-engineered it and then everyone got hold of it. Result, ten years later, future kingdom. The other two aren't far behind, I don't think. In the end, when Zao ran out of terms to get re-elected in, he chose Lilac to be the mayor in his stead."

"Oh!" Janic sounded genuinely surprised, "Well, good for her."

"Indeed. She's perhaps the most popular mayor they ever had," Surgeon cast a glance towards no-one in particular, "Of course, don't know where else you go but up from Zao, but...still. Goes to show a few things. I mean, one's ability to bounce back from really anything. People in wheelchairs are more accepted now, things are more...normal. Everything's doing just fine, especially for the mayor..." he trailed off, before suddenly pointing behind Janic, with a warm smile on his face, "And her assistant, of course."

A confused Janic looked in the direction that Surgeon was warmly pointing, towards the centre of the square. People were quickly standing aside and bowing in respect as two people wheeled their way through the town centre. Some waved and cheered, and one of them waved back. It was...well it was two people. One pushing the other in a wheelchair. The standing was one...Carol, Janic thought? Surgeon had only told her what these two looked like. Carol was some sort of green wildcat, with darker green strikes on her face and parts of her body, as well as a tail and a red scarf wrapped around her neck. She wore a sort of business suit, no doubt needed for her assistant duties, black in colour with a green shirt and tie. She wore glasses and no gloves. And then, in a gilded cyan wheelchair, was seemingly Lilac. She was a lavender dragon with long hair, pointed lavender horns, large magenta eyes and two long tendrils woven into a braid and running down her back. She wore a white blouse with a cyan shawl, as well as a large and long sea blue skirt that covered her legs and feet completely, as if she had a mermaid's tail. The two wore matching earrings and, oddly enough, the same gem-encrusted ring on their fingers.

The two were wheeling down the street, laughing like old friends - as, well, they were. They were enjoying the crowd as they continued to wheel further into the city. Lilac's expression was soft and warm, a far cry from the broken, jaded look she sported in the group photos Surgeon had showed her. Carol, on the other hand, had the same confident smirk as in the photos, as the two waved to their adoring citizens. They were chatting, but at the distance they were it was drowned out by the crowd a bit. Lilac reached up and tapped Carol on the arm, smiling warmly, and Carol reached down so the two could share a passionate kiss, to the cheer of the crowd. Janic just looked confused, "...They do seem to hook up in a lot of these worlds, don't they?"

"Mmmhm. Call it bias, probably..." Surgeon shrugged. He looked on as the two lovebirds shared another kiss, a proud smile on his face, "To think, when I first saw her, she wanted to throw herself off a cliff. She thought it was the end, but it's never the end. There's always a reason to pick yourself up, and keep going. And you never know where you're gonna end up."

Suddenly, there was screaming. The clomping of boots. What appeared to be police were running down the street and into the city. Most ran past the girls and off further into the city, seemingly to protect something. But one of them was not so lucky. The guard, dressed in the same maroon red SWAT armour as the other guards, stumbled before the two and collapsed to his knees, wounded. He cried out. "Mayor Lilac! The Scarves, they're returning!" before collapsing to the ground.

Carol barely had time to check his pulse and thankfully get him to his knees and send him on his knees before people started to flood into the square. They too wore army uniforms of sorts, padded suits with armour and pouches baked into the outfit. They wore helmets hiding their faces, stun batons slung across their backs, and brass knuckles slipped over their hands. The armour was of a green shade, with the maws of monsters painted on their visors and red handkerchieves not unlike Carol's around their necks. People screamed in fear as this new force attacked, bashing into shops and stealing what they could find, then kicking the citizens around for fun. Surgeon and Janic saw the ruckus and took action, grabbing their krullers and kicking the table over to make something resembling cover. The coffee cups hit the ground and shattered, spilling whatever remained of the bean juice, but the krullers were fine.

Janic quickly took another bite of hers, and then turned to her equal, "Surgeon, what's happening!?"

"Urgh, the Scarves..." Surgeon grumbled, hiding behind the table, "Spade's lot. He got himself killed sometime after Merga's invasion, and some other violent creature took his place. The tech and the new leadership's made them cocky. From small scale stealing to full on raids. They've been fighting them back for years."

"That's terrible!" Janic cried out, peering over the table to look at the others, "We have to do something! They're in the middle of the crossfire!"

"Don't worry," Surgeon said, "They'll be just fine..."

Janic looked up over the table to get a better look at Lilac and Carol. They were still in the middle of the square, Carol urging people to run in the opposite direction while Lilac was yelling into a megaphone on what to do and where to do. But of a weird thing to do considering the enemy was right there, but then the Scarves seemed more pre-occupied looting than to listen. Finally, everyone was evacuated, leaving only the two alone with the Scarves. Lilac noted something to Carol, who gave her a kiss for good luck, and then ran over to the back of the chunky, mechanical wheelchair and pressed some buttons on a pad. To Janic's shock, the wheelchair split and almost seemed to envelope Lilac, covering her body from neck to toe in a sort of grid of mecha parts. Bits shifted around, forming armour on her arms and legs, with electrical components running under the armour plates and shifting around to cause the contraption to grow. Finally, Lilac sighed happily, standing up tall and giving Carol a little fist bump before both rocketed into the fray, punching bad guys this way and that with frightening efficiency.

"Is that...her exo suit?!" Janic said aloud, her mind absolutely blown, "I...wow! I guess that tech allowed a few...uh, improvements."

"Exactly," Surgeon said, his face slightly stoic, "We mustn't interfere, we cannot risk breaking time more than it already has!" he paused, and stared at Janic with a sly face, "...Although...if a rogue member or two would accidentally fall on your cricket bat, I SUPPOSE I could look the other way..."

Janic chuckled, digging out a cricket bat from hammerspace. It was broken, battered and wrapped in duct tape, but it was her bat for smashing things if the situation called for it. And this situation absolutely called for it, "Surgeon?" she asked as the two lept over the table and dashed into the fray, "You read my mind."

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THE END  
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End file.
